Bronx Muslim Taxi Driver Beaten, Slurred, and Robbed Over $1 Dispute

A Muslim taxi driver in the Bronx said he was bloodied Saturday by a passenger who punched him repeatedly while yelling anti-Muslim slurs.

"He landed about 10 or 15 punches and I couldn’t see anything. He was screaming, 'I’m going to kill you, you Muslim a******!'" Serajul Khan, 49, told the New York Daily News.

The beating was apparently triggered over a single dollar, according to Khan's account to the Daily News.

He said the passenger asked how much he owed, to which Khan replied, "Some people pay $8, some people pay $9." When Khan handed back a dollar as change for a $10 bill, the passenger became enraged, grabbed the driver's bundle of cash, and beat him.

The passenger then pulled Khan from the car and continued beating him until the female co-passenger intervened.

Khan was taken to a hospital to be checked out and had black eyes and bruises on his lip and ears, WABC-TV reported.

"One time, he tell me, 'You stupid Muslim driver, I'm going to kill you,'" Khan told the station.

Police are searching for the suspect and haven't classified the incident as a hate crime, according to WABC-TV.

The passenger made off with about $200, News12 The Bronx reported. Khan told the station that if he decides to go back to work he will install a surveillance camera and partition in his car.

There have been 126 incidents classified as hate crimes in the city so far this year, including 10 anti-Muslim incidents, according to the Daily News. Those numbers are up from 103 hate crimes and four anti-Muslim incidents during the same time last year.

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