WASHINGTON – Rashid Dar was walking with his brother in Washington D.C., when a man he didn’t know approached him and punched him in the throat, all without saying a word.

Dar, a researcher at Brookings,  was about to finish up a sermon he was set to give.

 “I believe I was attacked for the way I was dressed,” he said.

The incident occurred on Friday, September 30. Dar said that traditionally on Friday afternoons, he wears a black overcoat often worn by imams and a taqiyah, a hat worn in order to pray.

Dar’s brother went after the man and the two were circling one another for a moment, before the alleged attacker ran away.

Dar reported the incident to the police and said a detective had been assigned to the case. 

D.C. Police does not comment on ongoing investigations, but confirmed they received a call about an unprovoked assault in the 1200 block of 19th Street NW.

In a statement, CAIR urged authorities to take the incident seriously. 

“Given the unprecedented rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, we’re concerned about a possible bias motive,” says Ibrahim Hooper, the communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “We don’t know what the motive is now, but we’re looking into it. The fact that he was dressed in quote Islamic attire is one of the things, just as headscarves seem to be.”

Dar says this is the first time that he has faced harassment in D.C., but his wife, who wears a headscarf, has dealt with Islamophobia on a more consistent basis. “Muslim women go through a hell of a lot more than Muslim men,” he said.