The 21-year old man who allegedly stabbed a New York Muslim cabdriver has been identified as Michael Enright, a filmmaker from upstate New York, and today he was charged with attempted murder in the second degree, as a hate crime.

At Politico, Ben Smith notes that Enright’s films were apparently sponsored by a left-leaning group called Intersections: Alleged anti-Muslim attacker works at pro-Park51 group.

Smith’s headline is a bit misleading, however, because Intersections is involved in many different projects, not just in supporting Park51. Enright was a volunteer filmmaker for Intersections, and there’s no reason to believe he was involved with or sympathetic to their support for Park51.

Here’s a page at the Intersections website that describes Enright’s work for them: Media Roundup | Intersections International.

Michael Enright, a student at the School of Visual Arts and volunteer for Intersections’ Veteran-Civilian Dialogue program, was featured in The Journal News. Enright is working on his thesis film project about war’s effects on the soul, which includes excerpts of the Veteran-Civilian Dialogue. Enright’s film follows his former classmate Cpl. Alex Eckner, and Eckner’s army unit through basic training in Hawai’i, deployment to Afghanistan and their return home.

UPDATE at 8/25/10 1:05:52 pm:

Intersections has released a statement on the incident:

We have learned about an incident wherein one of our volunteers may have been charged with a hate crime in a stabbing incident that involved a New York City cab driver on Tuesday evening.

The alleged perpetrator is not an employee and has never been an employee of Intersections. There is a person who fits the description of the alleged perpetrator who has worked with us as a volunteer, but until we get further confirmation of the details in this incident, we cannot comment.

Our hearts go out to the cab driver, his family and any person who has dealt with such unacceptable violence.