A leading Muslim civil rights organisation has called on police in Ohio to investigate an attack on a Somali woman as a possible hate crime.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the woman was assaulted by four suspects, described as white, outside an apartment building in Columbus on 20 March while she waited for her children’s school bus.
Video footage of the incident shows the group arguing with the woman before pushing her to the ground. One attacker repeatedly kicked her while she lay on the pavement, CAIR said. As she tried to return to the building, another person exited and struck her in the face.
The woman, whose identity has not been released, was treated at a hospital and later discharged. She told CAIR she believes she was targeted because of her ethnicity and religion.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Khalid Turaani, executive director of CAIR’s Ohio chapters.
“It reflects a broader pattern of hostility and discrimination against marginalised communities.”
The group is calling on police to collect and review CCTV footage from surrounding buildings and to pursue assault and hate crime charges against the suspects.
In addition, CAIR urged officials to review the conduct of the officers who initially responded to the scene to determine if there was any mishandling of the case.
CAIR, the largest Muslim civil liberties group in the United States, recently reported an annual increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints, with 8,658 incidents recorded in 2023 — the highest since the group began tracking such data in 1996.
The assault comes amid heightened concerns over the treatment of Muslim communities and pro-Palestinian activists across the US. In recent weeks, immigration authorities have detained multiple individuals with ties to campus protests.
Among them is Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student at Columbia University, and Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor. Both are facing deportation proceedings over alleged affiliations with Hamas-linked rhetoric, according to officials.
On Tuesday, Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student at Tufts University, was also arrested by immigration authorities
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