Salman Aftab

Is a Pakistani man from Chicago who is pretty known in the community. He ran for the 50th ward Alderman spot. He lost horribly. He is known to be a hot head. The following article just shows one incident where he let his temper get the best of him. Enjoy.


Public ignorance aggravates effect of hate crimes
BY SUNITA PURI

Just before Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Pride Week and Hate Crimes Awareness Week, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) sadly mishandled a case of homophobia, exemplifying the many reasons why these two weeks of consciousness-raising were organized. Ifti Nasim, an openly gay Pakistani immigrant, suffered a verbal and physical attack at the hands of Salman Aftab, a fellow Pakistani Muslim. While Nasim was dining out with friends, Aftab, who had joined the group, began to verbally abuse him about being gay. After about 10 minutes of harassment, which included assaults on Nasim's Muslim identity, Aftab said, "I'm going to stab you up the ass to tell God I'm getting rid of at least one sinner! I want to clean up the planet after your type!"


Aftab then disappeared to the kitchen and returned with a large knife, which he pointed at Nasim, declaring a jihad against him and all gay Muslims. After Aftab tried to stab Nasim, a restaurant employee restrained Aftab while Nasim called the police. When the police arrived and spoke with both Aftab and Nasim, they told the latter that the whole matter appeared to be simply an "ethnic problem" between two Pakistanis. The police sided against Nasim, telling him that he was drunk, and then refusing him the option of a breathalyzer test to prove his sobriety. Although the police arrested Aftab, they recorded the incident as a misdemeanor and refused to recognize it as a hate crime. Aftab is now out on bail.

In the FBI's Hate Crime Collection Guidelines, a hate crime is defined as "a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin." Given this definition, it is unquestionable that Nasim suffered a "criminal offense" motivated by Aftab's bias against his religious and sexual orientation.