Police Investigate Hate Crime at T

The MBTA Police Department is investigating an alleged hate crime that occurred Friday afternoon, when a Muslim Harvard graduate student wearing a traditional headscarf was verbally and physically harassed after she exited the Harvard Square T stop.

“We have descriptions [of the suspects] and we have detectives on the case,” said MBTA spokesperson Brian A. Pedro.

The student was entering the “Pit” area on her way to weekly congregational prayer when four white males approached her and said, “What are you doing here? Go home to your own country,” according to the MBTA police. When the student tried to leave, the males tried to take off her headscarf, or hijab.

Pedro said Friday’s incident is the first of its kind to take place on the T since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and may also be the first such incident in Cambridge. A Saudi Arabian man reported to be a student at Boston University was stabbed in downtown Boston a little more than two weeks ago.

While Pedro said a search for the suspects in the Pit on Friday night was unsuccessful, security along the T has increased since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Officers are now stationed at the larger stops, where they simply made routine patrols prior to the attacks.

“We already had a heightened presence and we’ll keep it like that,” Pedro said. He declined to say how many officers were stationed at the Harvard Square subway stop for safety reasons.

Friday’s incident follows other attacks against those of Middle Eastern descent in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), which set up a hotline to track hate crimes in Boston after the Sept. 11 attacks, reports that it receives “tens of calls” daily from Boston residents reporting hate crimes.

“We are getting some serious cases that would really raise your eyesbrow and make you think, ‘This is happening in America?’” said ISB spokesperson Yasmine T. Dabbous. She said the more serious cases included reports of women being beaten.

—Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.