Brooklyn: Man beats up 2 Muslim boys outside mosque in suspected hate crime

Two Muslim boys, aged 16 and 17, were brutally beaten outside a mosque in Brooklyn, New York. The teenagers were attacked at around 1.30am (6.30am BST) on Sunday (3 July), as they were walking out of the mosque after offering prayers.

The incident outside the Muslim Community Center of Brooklyn in Sunset Park was captured on security cameras.

Mosque director, Mohamed Bahe, confirmed the news and said that the attacker shouted at the two and called them "you f*****g terrorists".

He added: "We had two volunteers, and they saw a suspicious car parked outside of our entrance. They looked at the car, trying to figure out who's inside. They saw a woman and they asked if she needed help.

"Then all of a sudden a guy comes across running from the street and punches him and knocks him down. He was stomping him and kicking him."

Bahe also claimed that in the past he has asked the New York Police Department to provide security outside the mosque, but so far nothing had been done.

An online community called Muslims Giving Back criticised the attack and said: "This is absolutely a HATE crime. We are urging our community, our activists, our leaders, to help us make sure the NYPD 72nd precinct files this as a hate crime and catch the perpetrator."

This is the third such incident in the US in the recent past. On Saturday, a Muslim doctor was stabbed to death outside a mosque in Houston, while earlier in the day another attack was reported outside the Forte Piece Islamic Center, when the victim was seriously injured.