NEW YORK — A man who allegedly stabbed two people, including a Jewish man, in New York City last week was charged with hate crimes in his first court appearance on Friday.

Raul Morales, 51, was charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder, one count of first degree assault, second degree assault, and attempted first-degree assault, all as hate crimes, court filings showed.

Morales is being held without bail and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Morales allegedly stabbed his first victim, who is Asian and not Jewish, in the back with a knife, a prosecutor told the court, according to The New York Post.

He then walked several blocks to an Orthodox synagogue, “shouted, ‘Justice for Islam’ and, ‘allahu akbar,’” before stabbing the Jewish victim with a screwdriver half a block away, the prosecutor said.

The synagogue has American and Israeli flags above its entrance.

Morales will appear in court next on Thursday.

Police have said that mental health issues may have played a role in the attacks.

Police executed a search warrant of Morales’s apartment, recovering books including a Quran, a biography of far-left Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, and writing by the Communist philosopher Karl Marx, The New York Post reported.

Jewish community members protested at the scene of the Jewish man’s stabbing on Sunday in a rally organized by the EndJewHatred activist group.

The........

© The Times of Israel