GZ Mosque Developer El-Gamal Assaults Barber, Breaks His Nose and Cheekbones

Otherwise, Sharif El-Gamal is just a "moderate" Muslim who's also a tax deadbeat. Just an average New Yorker who decided to convert to Islam after 9/11.

From the New York Daily News via Jihad Watch, comes this account of one of el-Gamal's eight "run-ins" with the law*:

His most recent arrest was for a Sept. 10, 2005, assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal's brother, Sammy.

The brothers and another man went to the apartment that afternoon to retrieve back rent from Mark Vassiliev, criminal and civil court records show.

El-Gamal allegedly cursed at Vassiliev, called him the Arabic curse word "sharmouta" and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbones.

When he was arrested, El-Gamal denied he socked Vassiliev, but conceded, "[Vassiliev's] face could have run into my hand," court papers say.

"I am in real estate. I'm rich. Why would I do this? Why would I jeopardize my career? I'm not a thug," he told cops.

He was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment. Charges were dropped in 2007 after Vassiliev sued.

El-Gamal settled out of court for $15,000 damages, but he wasn't claiming to be a rich guy anymore. In fact, "he was slow to pay and the matter ended up in mediation - where his lawyer, Marshall Isaacs, told Gray [Vassiliev's lawyer] there were money problems."

El-Gamal agreed to fork over $1,360 in interest and fees but paid up in installments . . . .

That was in 2008. Although El-Gamal claimed to be too poor to pay a few thousand dollars in damages for breaking up Mark Vassieliev's face, the very next summer, in 2009, he managed to come up with a "$39 million mortgage to buy a W. 27th St. commercial building."

That year he also bought a $5 million building whose roof and top two floors had been destroyed by a piece of the Boeing 767 that Mohamed Atta hijacked and then crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

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* El-Gamal's other "run-ins" with the law include disorderly conduct in 1990; DWI in 1992; attempted petit larceny in 1993; patronizing a prostitute in 1994; and more disorderly conduct in 1994, 1998, and 1999.
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Related post: GZ Mosque Developer Tax Deadbeat -- Owes $224K on Mosque Site