During the 9/11 fourth year anniversary, several attacks believed to be hate crimes against Bangladeshi Muslims were reported around New York City.

At different times and places, two imams of a Queens mosque, two students with the Bangladesh Performing Arts (BIPA) and a number of Muslim women were attacked.

Because there was a pattern in the assaults, many people in the Bangladeshi community believe that the hate crimes were planned.

According to reports, as soon as imam Moulana Muhibbur Rahman crossed Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens to get to Madina Mosque in Woodside, Queens where he conducts a religious class, an unidentified Latino teenager suddenly attacked him and ran away.

Rahman suffered serious injuries in his right elbow and right leg, and some of his fingernails were torn off. While he was left lying on the street, two Bangladeshis, who were at a nearby Digital-1 shop, rushed out and escorted him to the shop, the report said. Kazi Shamshul Haque, editor of the community newspaper Akhon Somoy, was informed about the incident and came to see Rahman at the shop, the report added.

Later, an ambulance came and rushed Rahman to the Elmhurst Hospital Center where he was confined there for injuries.

In a separate incident, two Bangladeshi Institute of Performing Arts students, who were not identified, were also attacked last September 11.

Reports said that the two Muslim students were walking to their homes from school. When they reached the corner of 36th Avenue and 36th Street, three Latino women, who were standing at the corner, called them names. When the students reacted, the report added, the Latino women rushed them and scratched their arms with their long fingernails, prompting one of the students to call the police. When the assailants saw the police coming, the report continued, the women scratch their own arms to make it look as if they were the ones being attacked. With blood on some parts of their bodies, the Latino women came forward to the police and made counter allegations against the Bangladeshi students.

Because police were unable to determine who was telling the truth, the Bangladeshi students were told to withdraw their complaints, otherwise all of them, including the Latino women, would be handcuffed and be taken to the police station. Out of fear that police would harass them further, the Bangladeshi students left and returned home, the report said.

On the same day, at around 12:00 noon, Moulana Abdul Latif, imam at the Abu Hanifa Mosque, located on Steinway Street, in Astoria Queens, was also attacked. While he was parking his car on 31st Street and Broadway, a white woman came near his car and started verbally abusing him in filthy language. Instead of parking his car, he quickly ran away to avoid further problem.

The Bangladeshi community fears that such attacks will happen every September 11.