Taxi knife attacker jailed

A man who slashed a Muslim taxi driver across the neck after calling him a terrorist has been jailed for four years. Steven Jack was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of permanently disfiguring Mohammed Yusuf in a racially aggravated attack.

Jack and two companions were travelling in Mr Yusuf’s private hire taxi in Glasgow city centre in November 2001. During the journey 27-year-old Jack called Mr Yusuf a Taleban terrorist and said “you want to bomb our country”.

Mr Yusuf said he asked the passengers to leave the car. But Jack was carrying a knife and he slashed the driver across the neck, inflicting a wound which needed 11 stitches.

Mr Yusuf said that he was a practising Muslim and he became a target because of his beard and Afghan hat.

BBC News, 17 February 2003