Four teenagers on hate crime charge accused of beating Muslim classmate they called a terrorist



Four teenagers were facing hate crime charges today for allegedly bullying a Muslim classmate in their New York school.

The victim, now 16, was said to have been subjected to a harrowing ordeal in which he was frequently labelled a 'terrorist', punched in the groin and was spat in the face.

It was the latest example of a spate of hate crimes which have shocked New York, after it emerged last week that a Bronx gang tortured two teenagers and an adult for being gay.



Abuse: The Muslim teenager was allegedly subjected to a year-long ordeal in which he was branded a terrorist and beaten by four classmates in Staten Island, New York (posed by models)

New York Police Department arrested three 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old over the year-long hate campaign, which ended in June when the victim left his school in Staten Island.

They were charged with assault and aggravated harassment as a hate crime and will appear in court.

Now in high school, the victim, identified only as Kristian, finally told his parents about the bullying when he learned some of his alleged tormentors were also joining his new school.

The parents - who emigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad in the 1980s - lodged a complaint with police who arrested the boys on Sunday.

Kristian told the New York Daily News: '[They] punched me in my groin, and I fell to the floor. They started kicking me, and calling me 'You f****** terrorist,' 'You f****** Muslim.'



He said the abuse began in October last year while a pupil at the Edwin Markham Intermediate School where he was beaten for his Muslim heritage and blamed for terrorist bombings.