Fox host: Cabbie stabbing ‘nothing to do with anti-Muslim sentiment’

By David Edwards

One Fox News host may be in denial about the effects of rampant Islamophobia over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque."

While reporting on the stabbing of a Muslim New York City cab driver, Alisyn Camerota maintained anti-Islamic rhetoric had nothing to do with the crime.

Michael Enright was charged Wednesday with attempted murder as hate crime for allegedly stabbing Ahmed Sharif in his cab Tuesday night. The attack allegedly began with Enright asking Sharif if he was a Muslim. When the cab driver answered yes, the attacker yelled, "As-salaam alaikum. This is a checkpoint, this is checkpoint, motherf**ker, I have to put you down." Sharif claims that Enright then took out a knife and slashed his throat, face and arm.

Enright reportedly volunteered for Intersections International, a pro-Islam global initiative. He had recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan where he filmed military exercises.

Fox News' Steve Doocy explained that liberals were placing the blame on anti-Muslim rhetoric. "Suddenly everybody is going look, that guy went berserk because clearly, this Islamaphobia that is brewing in Lower Manhattan because of the mosque, that's the reason that guy slit his throat!"

Camerota quickly offered a more benign explanation. "It turns out that this kid was just very drunk," she said. "It appears that he flew into this drunken rage."

"Now, why he asked if the driver was Muslim, why they had that exchange in Arabic, only he knows," Camerota continued.

"It seems like this kid has struggled with alcoholism. He's had a history dust-ups with the NYPD. Minor but all alcoholism related and that that's what is probably behind this."

"Nothing to do with anti-Muslim sentiment," she concluded.

But the New York Daily News reports that there is even more evidence that says Enright was harboring anti-Muslim feelings.

When he was arrested Tuesday in midtown, Enright had a personal diary filled with pages of "pretty strong anti-Muslim comments," a police source said.

The source said Enright's journal equated Muslims with "killers, ungrateful for the help they were being offered, filthy murderers without a conscience."

But The Associated Press was told that the notebooks did not contain any anti-Muslim rants.

While Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade said he was aware of the diary, he seemed to dismiss that it could be related to opposition to the Park51 cultural center, an Islamic center and mosque planned near Ground Zero.

"He has kept a diary with some anti-Muslim phrases and beliefs but let's not everyone jump to conclusions and immediately tie his actions to the mosque," said Kilmeade.

This video is from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Aug. 26, 2010.