Filmmaker claims he?s victim of hate crime in Fairfield

IOWA CITY (AP) ? A filmmaker shooting a documentary about the treatment of Arabs in the U.S. claims he was attacked and called racial epithets after he wandered uninvited into an Iowa house party, and police are treating the case as a hate crime after officers found him with a bloody face.

Usama Alshaibi said Monday he was repeatedly punched and kicked by four men after he arrived at the party early Sunday in Fairfield where he moved with his wife last year. The 41-year-old, who was born in Baghdad but grew up in Iowa City, said the men called him an epithet used to refer to Arabs as well as ?Osama bin Laden? and beat him before he got away.

Alshaibi is producing a film called ?American Arab? for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films about discrimination against Arabs in the U.S. He won critical praise for an earlier documentary, ?Nice bombs,? about reuniting with his family during the war in Iraq.

A Fairfield police report says a Family Video manager called 911 to report a man in his parking lot crying and screaming at 12:19 a.m. Sunday. Responders found Alshaibi bleeding from his forehead and nose, with some scratches on his hands as if he had fallen to the ground. Alshaibi said he went to the hospital later Sunday, was treated and released.

Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey said Monday officers believe Alshaibi?s claims are credible because he was clearly assaulted, and they continue to search for the alleged assailants. She said Alshaibi has been unable to pinpoint the home where the assault allegedly occurred because he was intoxicated when he arrived and disoriented when he left.

?Is it a hate crime? Yeah, by what they were calling him,? she said. ?We just don?t have an idea of where the incident took place at. It?s a high rental district. There?s a lot of people in and out, in and out. We just got to locate the house and then go from there.?

Harvey said today she has requested the state Division of Criminal Investigation?s help with the case ?because of the seriousness of the allegation, we want to make sure a thorough investigation is done.?

A DCI spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Mayor Ed Malloy said today that police interviewed neighbors in a four-block area near where Alshaibi was found and believe they have pinpointed the home where he says four men punched and kicked him.

Malloy called that ?some sort of a breakthrough? given that Alshaibi said he had no idea which house he had entered looking for a party.

Malloy said investigators were in the process of interviewing witnesses who were there during the alleged incident.

Malloy cautioned against a rush to judgment in the case.

For the complete article, see the Tuesday, March 8, 2011, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.