[Darksheare]

Umm. The assailant being Arab DOES have a bearing on this. The Assailant was an arab who taunted the victim about her ethnicity for weeks.
Now, under the hate crimes laws, that's a hate crime. Taunting someone about their ethnicity is a hate crime.
And if pointing that out is a problem, then what of it?

[droberts]

No, the issue here is that the perpetrator was of one race and the victim was of another, which as you say, makes it a hate crime. However, if the race of victim and perpetrator were reversed, I can guarantee this story would never have been posted on FR.