Utah man indicted on hate crime charge for stabbing Muslim mall worker
A federal grand jury indicted a Utah man Wednesday on a hate crime charge for the July 13 stabbing of a Muslim mall worker because of his religion, the US Justice Department said.
Peter Larsen, 48, of Orem was indicted for “willfully causing bodily injury to a victim because of his actual or perceived religion,” the department said in a statement.
"An investigation determined that the defendant harbored anti-Muslim views and went to the West Valley Mall specifically for the purpose of attacking Muslims," it said, adding that Larsen purchased a knife inside the mall and asked employees if they were Muslim before attacking the victim.
The attack "was only stopped through the intervention of bystanders, who detained the defendant until police arrived," it added.
"This administration prioritizes protecting the civil rights of all Americans, and we will not tolerate violence motivated by religious hatred," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
Larsen has been held in state custody since his July 13 arrest and faces up to life in prison if convicted, the department said.
The victim, identified in a Go Fund Me campaign only as Sohail, was stabbed more than 15 times and suffered serious injuries requiring multiple surgeries on his hands, heart and lungs, according to local sources.
Footage shared on social media showed several bystanders tackling Larsen before police arrived, pinning him down and wrestling the knife from his hand.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the stabbing and called on public officials to reject anti-Muslim rhetoric.
"This horrific attack is yet another reminder that anti-Muslim rhetoric has real-world consequences," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
“When Muslims are routinely demonized, portrayed as threats, or treated as less deserving of equal rights and dignity, some twisted individuals inevitably act on that hatred,” he added.
CAIR said it documented 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints in 2025, the highest number recorded since it began tracking such cases in 1996.
The Utah Muslim Civic League also condemned the attack as a hate crime, praising bystanders who intervened.
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