A New York Hero: Hassan Askari

The odds were 10:3. A mob, one of whom had been involved with racist attacks on blacks in the past, attacked three Jews for having the NERVE to wish them "Happy Hanukkah" in response to "Merry Christmas." This occurred on the NYC subway, well within a part of the world considered more or less free of such stupid bigotry. But the ten bigots who mobbed the Jews for wishing them "Happy Hanukkah" included a woman who was the perfect illustration of the stupidity such bigots embrace when she referred to Hanukkah as the day Jews celebrate the killing of Christ.

Hanukkah, of course, pre-dated the birth of Christ by some 200 years, and represented the success of Jewish rebellion against the Syrian Greeks.

When the odds are 10:3, a hero jumps in to defend the 3. That is what Hassan Askari did. Hassan Askari was a gentleman from a Bangladeshi family who jumped in to defend the three Jews against the ten ignorant bigots who attacked them. He received a possible broken nose in the process, but is also being honored by New York City as a genuine good Samaritan.

Hassan Askari shows us all the right thing to do. I believe many of us would do the same if we were there and our reaction time quick enough. But he DID it, without thinking, and in turn bore the brunt of the anger of the bigots. For that he represents the heroic side of all of us, and I join in the many people who are embarassing with the title of "hero."

Bigotry transcends racial, ethnic and religious boundaries. But heroism transcends the same boundaries. That is the most important lesson of this event. The bigots should be left to well-deserved obscurity. They are nobodies. They are fools. They are the scum of NYC. But Hassan Askari is the hero we should remember.

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