In this Newsday article about an attack on a Sikh high school student in New York, we learn all about the victim’s religion—and nothing about the attacker’s: Hate-crime charges in haircut attack.

A Queens high school student was charged with hate crimes Friday for violating a Sikh student’s religious beliefs by forcing him to remove his turban and cutting his hair, the Queens district attorney said.

“The defendant is not accused of some schoolhouse prank, but an attack on the fundamental beliefs of his victim’s religion and his freedom to worship freely,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a prepared statement.

Umair Ahmed, 17, of 42-49 77th St., was arrested in the Thursday attack in a bathroom at Newtown High School in Elmhurst. Ahmed and another student allegedly forced the 15-year-old victim into the bathroom, and after threatening him forced the boy to remove his dastar, a traditional Sikh turban. The other boy, also 15, is being treated as a juvenile.

Ahmed used scissors to cut off his victim’s waist-long hair, then threw it in a toilet and on the floor, according to a spokesman for the district attorney. Cutting a Sikh’s hair is contrary to the Sikh faith, which considers hair a gift from God that should never be cut.

At the end of the article, they toss in a clue.

The boy said it was against his religion, but Ahmed showed him a ring and said, “This ring is Allah. If you don’t let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring.”

UPDATE at 5/26/07 10:28:31 am:

The sister of the Muslim student pushed her way into the press conference, and claimed that the Sikh student asked her brother to cut his hair; video is at 7Online.com. (Hat tip: NY Nana.)