Queens Tribune

On the evening of Sept. 7, on her way to break fast at an Astoria mosque in light of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Long Island resident Shareena Rahat said she was verbally attacked with racial slurs and physically confronted by a man on a Queens parkway, in front of her two young children, ages 8 and 11.

According to a criminal complaint, the alleged perpetrator, Michael Doherty of 164-60 64th Ave., Fresh Meadows, is being charged with harassment in the first degree as a hate crime, assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree. Doherty was later arrested and released without bail; he is expected to return to court Oct. 27.

Rahat, who was wearing a head scarf at the time of the incident, alleges with no apparent provocation, Doherty pulled alongside her on the Grand Central Parkway service road, spat on her car and yelled “Dumb Pakistani, go back to your country.” Rahat said he then proceeded to use his car as a weapon, stopping short in front of her vehicle on two occasions and eventually getting out of his car and reaching into her driver’s side window to hit the cellular phone she was using to call 911 out of her hand. He then drove off.

Rahat, a single mother of three children who emigrated to the U.S. from Guyana in 1982, said she felt “shock, fear and concern about the safety of my kids.”

She said the incident traumatized her children, who do not want to return to Queens.

“My kids keep saying to me, ‘Mom, suppose the guy is waiting at the light again. Mom, let’s not go this way.’ […] The problem I am having is my kids have been saying, every time we get in the car, ‘Mom, can you please take off your scarf? Mom, maybe we can’t wear a scarf because people are going to curse or spit at us and try to make an accident again,’” Rahat said.

She said her children have always considered themselves American Egyptians but are now attempting to conceal their heritage. Her daughter, who was in the passenger seat during the altercation, is resistant about the idea of wearing her head scarf.

“Besides being a single parent, I now have this added chore of how I will help them to hold on to their identity and not feel that they have to give it up,” Rahat said.

She said she was surprised that in such a “cosmopolitan world” in broad daylight someone could be so overtly racist.

“Hate is a terrible thing; it damages so much emotionally and physiologically,” Rahat said. “The amount of exhaustion that hate in one heart puts on your body and mind, it’s not worth it.”

She stressed the importance of not grouping entire races together and holding all accountable for the actions of a small few.

“Assess and view each human being as an individual human being, not as a generalized character or statistic from a culture or a place,” Rahat said. “There is good and bad in every and all cultures and races.”

Aliya Latif, civil rights director for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has been in contact with Rahat. She said CAIR expressed concern about a “spike” in reports of anti-Muslim incidents nationwide during or just prior to the month of Ramadan.

“Attacks motivated by racial or religious hatred must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law to serve as both a legal deterrent and a public repudiation of intolerance,” Latif said. “We welcome the prosecutor’s decision to address the apparent bias motive of the alleged attacker.”

Doherty could not be reached for comment.

Reach Reporter Kaitlyn Kilmetis at kkilmetis@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 128.