Ohio State suspect feared being in public because he was Muslim
The FBI is looking into claims that Abdul Artan, a Somali student, was afraid to be in public because of his Muslim faith.
On Monday morning, an Ohio State University student intentionally rammed his car into pedestrians and then began to slash at people with a butcher’s knife, with 11 people injured, according to authorities.
Within about a minute of the attack, police shot the suspect, Abdul Artan, but the school remained on lockdown for an hour and a half as panic gripped the campus. Authorities are currently looking into whether or not this was an act of terrorism. There is no evidence to show that Artan had any links to extremist groups, but the Islamic State was updating its audiences online about the incident on Monday.
–Eight stabbed, suspect shot dead in Ohio State scare–
The FBI is also looking into claims that Artan, a Somali student, was afraid to be in public because of his Muslim faith.
Last year, Arton was quoted in The Lantern, the student newspaper, talking about his fear of praying in public: “I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads.”
