SEATTLE — Muslim leaders are calling on the FBI to open an investigation into an incident on the University of Washington campus in which a Muslim student was hit by a bottle earlier this month.
Speaking at a news conference at the UW on Monday, officials with the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, say they believe the attack was a hate crime and that the victim, Nasro Hassan, was targeted because she is Muslim. The organization also announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who threw the bottle.
Hassan, a 19-year-old UW freshman, was struck in the face with a bottle thrown by a male just before 5 p.m. on Nov. 15 as she walked along Grant Lane, where it runs between Mary Gates Hall and Suzzallo Library, said Jasmin Samy, CAIR’s civil rights manager.
Hassan, a Somali-American and Muslim woman from North Dakota, immediately reported the assault to campus police and provided a written statement, Samy said. The young woman, who was wearing a hijab, provided a description of the suspect’s clothing — a black hoodie, jeans and sneakers — but Samy said Hassan didn’t know or mention the assailant’s race.
UW police didn’t issue a safety alert or otherwise notify the student body about the attack, said Samy and CAIR’s Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari. They’ve asked the FBI to lend their expertise because they believe the police investigation has been inadequate.
The bottle used in the attack wasn’t left behind and Bukhari didn’t know whether surveillance cameras recorded the incident.
Hassan suffered significant bruising to the right side of her face and after complaining of headaches was taken to Highline Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a concussion, according to Samy.
Asked whether the FBI would get involved, a spokeswoman for the agency’s Seattle office issued the following statement:
“We are aware of the incident and, as we routinely do, defer to the investigation by the primary responding agency, and maintain communication should our partners develop information that suggests a federal crime was committed. Although our communication does not necessarily result in the opening of an FBI investigation, we take very seriously allegations of hate crimes because they are not only an attack on the victim, but are meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community.”
A call to UW police was not immediately returned Monday.
“The incident, which possibly fits a pattern of hate attacks against American Muslim women locally and nationwide, has caused a wave of concern among Muslim students for their own safety,” Bukhari wrote in a news release.
Earlier this month, University of Washington Bothell officials said they were investigating a possible hate crime that occurred on campus in which a group of men reportedly targeted several Muslim women, demanding that they remove their hijabs.
According to recently released FBI statistics, reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, increasing from 154 in 2014 to 257.
