Iraqi immigrant in St. Louis claims to have been attacked for "pro-Jewish poem"

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_a16c49c1-e3ae-521f-8b31-35a41c432463.html

In this picture taken at the hospital in August, a Star of David can be seen cut or scraped into Alaa Alsaegh's back. Photo provided by Alsaegh

Ex-Iraqi says pro-Jewish poem prompted attack

Robert Patrick, rpatrick@post-dispatch.com, 314-621-5154, 2011/10/12 0:02

ST. LOUIS • A man's claim that he was attacked or threatened here three times for writing a pro-Jewish poem — including having a Star of David carved into his back — has stirred the Internet and raised questions about the investigation.

Federal authorities say they cannot prove or disprove it happened.

Alaa Alsaegh, 41, an immigrant from Iraq, said through an interpreter last week that he is afraid to leave his St. Louis home and disappointed with law enforcement.

"I'm going to die, and these people aren't doing anything," he complained.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan insisted, "These allegations are something that our office, and the FBI and the St. Louis police have taken seriously from day one and the fact that we have not been able to find any leads to follow up or corroborate the allegations is not a result of any lack of effort."

He added, "I understand sometimes if a victim ... feels not enough attention is being paid, but from my vantage point, the FBI has done more to try to work this case than if I were the victim."

The events described by Alsaegh began about 10:45 a.m. Aug. 14, when he says four people in a car forced his vehicle to the curb on Compton Avenue, south of Highway 40 (Interstate 64). He said they cut away his shirt and scratched a Star of David onto his back at gunpoint while reading a poem he wrote in sympathy with Jews who died in the Holocaust. The poem had been posted online on YouTube.

Alsaegh, a Muslim, said he is a former law adviser with the Iraqi Health Ministry who left the country in 2006 after uncovering a militia plot to use ambulances to transport weapons. He arrived in the U.S. in 2009.

He said the poem, a response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, drew criticism from conservative Muslims.

Before the attackers left him, he said, one forced him to swallow something that tasted like spoiled milk. He said the gunman wore a brown uniform and warned him in broken Arabic: "We will hit you if you do anything."

He said the emblem was scratched into his back with a nail or similar object, and has healed.

Since then, Alsaegh said, there were two more episodes.

In one, he said, an armed man confronted him at a home he owns on Page Avenue, showing him a picture of the Aug. 14 gunman and warning him not to identity the man to authorities. He could not say when this happened.

In the other instance, he said, he was confronted on the street near his home by someone who administered an injection in his head that knocked him out. He said he awoke four hours later and miles away.

Alsaegh complained that authorities did not take him seriously. He said a friend, Nonie Darwish, blogged about the attack Sept. 27 in an article titled "Sharia Vigilante Street Justice in America."

Darwish, who is listed as president of FormerMuslimsUnited.org, said it all shows that mainstream news media ignore "attacks perpetrated by Muslims against Muslim infidels or honor crimes."

A police report obtained by the Post-Dispatch mentions only one juvenile witness, who didn't see the attack.

Patricia Stewart, who lives near South Compton Avenue and Caroline Street, in the area where the initial attack allegedly occurred, told a reporter she had not seen or heard anything about it.

"That's too weird," she said. "It's almost incredible. That just seems all made up. But I don't know. Stranger things have happened."

FBI spokesman Rebecca Wu said the agency "takes this matter seriously" and wants to hear from anyone with information.