Foreign-speaking woman attacked

COON RAPIDS, Minnesota (AP) – A woman who was attacked by another woman in a US restaurant, allegedly because she was speaking a foreign language, said she feels traumatized and may move out of Minnesota. Asma Jama told Minnesota Public Radio News that she was chatting with her family in Swahili, one of three languages she speaks, at a Minnesota restaurant on Oct. 30 when a woman in a nearby booth smashed a beer mug in her face. The attack left a deep cut on her lip that required stiches. “Somebody hit me because I was speaking a different language,” said Jama, an ethnic Somali who came to Minnesota in 2000 from Kenya. The woman accused in the attack, Jodie Burchard-Risch, was arrested and charged with third-degree assault.