Elham Asaad Buaras
A Muslim woman has been brutally beaten by a mob in Spain on August 23. Police say the 38-year-old – who was wearing a hijab – was set upon by the gang of three men and needed hospital treatment for cuts, bruises and an anxiety attack she suffered.
The unnamed woman was hospitalized with a mild concussion sustained outside the Usera metro station in the Usera neighbourhood of the Spanish capital. A spokesman for the 38-year-old victim said: “She is suffering from severe anxiety and stress since the assault.”
Police are treating the beating as a hate crime motivated by the terror attacks in Barcelona on August 17.
Police say the Madrid attack victim saw little of her attackers’ faces. Senior officers say they have stepped up police patrols near the city’s mosques.
A Seville mosque was daubed with anti-Muslim graffiti that included threats to behead Muslims with machetes, while a mosque in Granada was attacked with flares on by a group of people chanting xenophobic statements.
Just under 2 million Muslims live in Spain, making up around 4 percent of the total population.
Other suspects linked to the atrocity have been arrested or continue to be under investigation.
