US Muslim filmmaker 'racially abused, beaten'

09 March,2011 12:27 PM IST |   |  Agencies

A Muslim documentary maker allegedly faced racial attacks and called racial epithets in the United States after he encroached into a house party, which he had not been invited to


A Muslim documentary maker allegedly faced racial attacks and called racial epithets in the United States after he encroached into a house party, which he had not been invited to.
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The Daily Mail quoted Usama Alshaibi as claiming that he was repeatedly punched and kicked by four men after he arrived at the party of Sunday in Fairfield, a Iowa City of about 9,500 residents where he moved to with his wife last year.
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Forty-one-year-old Alshaibi, who was born in Baghdad but grew up in Iowa City, said that the men called him an epithet, a term used to refer to Arabs and ''Osama bin Laden'', and assaulted him before he managed to escape.
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The filmmaker is producing a film called 'American Arab' for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films to showcase how Arabs are being discriminated in America, and some people have raised suspicion that the ''attack'' was a publicity stunt. However, Alshaibi denied such allegations.
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"This isn't how I would promote my film. I thought I was going to die," the paper quoted him, as saying.
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Police had found Alshaibi bleeding from his forehead and nose in the early hours of Sunday morning, reportedly crying in a car park after the supposed attack.
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On Tuesday, Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey said that officers believe Alshaibi's claims are credible because he was clearly assaulted, and they continue to search for the alleged assailants.
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As of now, the filmmaker has not been able to figure out the house where he was allegedly assaulted because he was reportedly intoxicated when he had entered the house.
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racially abuses US Muslim filmmaker encroached party Usama Alshaibi