A U.S.-born Israeli author and terrorism expert says it's absurd that police are not investigating an attack on a Jewish Michigan State University student as a hate crime.
Zach Tennen was reportedly at an off-campus party when two men asked if he was Jewish ( see earlier story). When he confirmed, the attackers punched him in the face and stapled his mouth. The 19-year-old sophomore from the Detroit suburb of Franklin is now recovering from jaw surgery.
But East Lansing police have issued a statement deeming the assault "not likely a hate crime." A potential suspect has been identified.
David Rubin, the former mayor of the Israeli city of Shiloh and author of The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama, thinks he knows why police are refusing to call the incident a hate crime.
"Very often the police respond like that because they're afraid of political attacks," he offers. "We're talking about Michigan State University. I think we need to remember that Michigan has a very large Muslim population. The Muslims are wielding a lot of influence these days. It would not surprise me that the two men who assaulted the Jewish student were Muslims."
Rubin adds that if the attackers are discovered to be Muslims, no one should be afraid to say so out of fear of being verbally or physically assaulted.