"They want to make me an example for young people who do not respect the religious law."From: NewNowNext
Last week, a 26-year-old transgender Tunisian man was reportedly stabbed and beaten by a gang of alleged ISIS supporters in Brussels.
The man, identified as Sharky, originally immigrated from Tunisia to Belgium in 2012 to escape anti-trans violence he’d faced in his home country, which he says first began online before manifesting itself in physical attacks.
“It all began on social media. At first I tried not to take the threats seriously, although they made it clear they were members of Islamic State,” he told La Capitale. “They want to make me an example for young people who do not respect the religious law. They said they only have to wait for an official command to behead me.”
Fearing for his life, Sharky made the move from his homeland to Belgium. However, this past week, he came face to face with the same assailants who had threatened his life in Tunisia on the streets of Etterbeek in the greater Brussels area.
Sharky stated that as the men surrounded him and began to stab and beat him he realized that “they were the same people who had assaulted [him] in Tunisia.” When they eventually fled, he said he attempted to walk away from the scene of the crime, but collapsed to the ground. It was there that a young woman found him lying unconscious hours later.
He was then taken to a local hospital where it was revealed that he’d suffered several stab wounds to the abdomen as well as cuts to the head, which can be seen in a series of graphic tweets, here.
Gay Star News has reported that Belgian’s Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism said they were taking the attack very seriously. However, local police all but dismissed Sharky’s complaints, saying that there’s no evidence to back up his claims that the men attacked him for being trans.
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