After all, being the relative of an accused criminal – even a terrorist – does not make you part of a protected class.

The 12-year-old sister of a Fort Dix terror suspect alleges she was attacked at a township school in an apparent hate crime, an Islamic group said Monday.

The sister of Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, one of six men accused of plotting an attack on the Burlington County military installation, says she was choked and punched at Carusi Middle School in an incident last month, according to the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The assailant allegedly said, "There's a terrorist on the loose," and told the girl, "Your brother will never come back," according to Afsheen Shamsi, a CAIR-NJ spokeswoman.

"It does seem that she was targeted because of the alleged plot that her brother had engaged in," said Shamsi. "It's really sad and terrible."

The civil-liberties group has scheduled a news conference today at its Princeton headquarters to demand that the FBI and state Office of Bias Crimes investigate the alleged attack and find and prosecute the assailant.

Now there is clearly an assault here, and it needs to be dealt with as such. But the attack seems to be based upon her brother’s involvement with the plot to kill American servicemen – not upon this girl’s race, ethnicity or religion, unless one wishes to argue that being a terrorist is part and parcel of being either an Arab or a Muslim. As such, there is no way to call this a hate crime.

More disturbing to me, however, is the fact that it has taken over three weeks for this to be reported to the authorities.

By the way, it is my hope that the attacker is correct in one of his comments – I hope that the terrorist scumbag never sees another day of freedom.

Posted by: Greg at 11:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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