Sarker Haque, the owner of the Fatima Food Mart in New York's Queens borough, says he was attacked on Saturday by a man shouting that he came to "kill Muslims."
"He punched me here," Haque told WPIX, motioning toward an ice cream cooler. "I fell down here… I say, ‘What the hell you doing? What's wrong with you?' [The attacker] said, ‘I kill Muslims.'"
Haque, 53, reportedly suffered several blows before a customer entered the store and stopped the attacker.
"A person came [by]… He knows me," Haque said. "I'm bleeding [at] this time so he [took] hold of [the attacker]," the store owner said.
Police identified the attacker as 55-year-old Piro Kolvani. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Following high-profile and deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and the Southern California community of San Bernardino, the number of assaults on Muslim Americans has skyrocketed. Many believe the anti-Muslim rhetoric of some American politicians, including Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, is to blame.
In Philadelphia, an investigation has been launched after a severed pig's head was discovered at an area mosque as it opened for Monday morning prayers this week. That incident is also considered to be hate-motivated, as Islamic law bars followers from eating pork.
Last month in New York a Muslim 6th grader was attacked by her schoolmates, who beat her up and attempted to tear off her hijab while calling her "ISIS."
Last weekend, a group of Muslims was harassed and called Satan worshipers while they prayed at a California park. And at a popular Austin, Texas cafe, two women say they were "humiliated" by anti-Muslim hate speech as other customers and cafe staff stood by silently and did nothing to stop it.
