Tulsa man arrested on religion-based hate-crime complaint

A Tulsa man was arrested Thursday on a complaint alleging that he committed a hate crime against a woman he assumed to be a Muslim.

Stuart D. Manning, 43, is accused of hitting the woman in the forehead and sticking a knife in a tire on her vehicle while repeatedly calling her a “Muslim b----,” his booking report says.

The woman told police that a man became upset with her apparently because he thought she had parked too close to his vehicle in a parking lot in the 1500 block of North Lewis Avenue on Dec. 13.

She said he repeatedly yelled at her while using the slur as she walked toward a business, according to the report.

She told police that when she came out of the business, she saw the man pull a knife out of the driver’s side front tire of her vehicle, the document says. She told police that after she asked him, “Why did you do that?” he swung at her with a closed fist, striking her in the forehead.

As he was swinging, he again called her a “Muslim b----,” according to the report. The man was seen leaving the area in a vehicle with a license plate that was later traced to Manning, the document says.

The booking report describes the victim as being from Lebanon. “She has a thick Middle Eastern accent and speaks and writes fluent Arabic. At the time of the assault she was wearing a head wrap. She has the appearance of someone that typically is of the Islamic faith,” the document says.

Manning told police that “he had a drinking relapse and did not remember the incident,” according to the document. He purportedly claimed a pair of glasses that the woman said she had pulled off her attacker.

Besides the hate crime/malicious intimidation complaint, Manning was also booked into the Tulsa Jail on assault and battery and malicious injury to property complaints.