Shopper Hit With Hate Crime After Decking 'al-Qaeda' Clerk

A Seattle shopper has been charged with assault and a hate crime after slugging a 7-11 clerk wearing a turban in an unprovoked attack. "You're not even American, you're al-Qaeda. Go back to your country," said the man as he punched the clerk. He was ejected from the store by another worker and busted on the street.

He admitted to cops he "struck a person on his turban," reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The victim's ethnicity was not revealed in court documents, but his last name is common among the Sikh community. Sikhs aren't Muslim. They come from India and follow the Sikh religion. (More assault stories.)