PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA — A man was arrested Wednesday evening for assaulting an Indian man he thought was a Muslim in a restaurant in the Pittsburgh area.


Jeffrey Burgess, 54, was sitting next to Ankur Mehta at the bar in a Red Robin in Bethel Park. Mehta was on his tablet and wearing earbuds.


Burgess was drunk and allegedly began insulting Mehta with racial slurs for a person of Middle Eastern origin. He told Mehta “things are different now.”


However, Burgess apparently did not understand that Mehta was neither of Middle Eastern heritage, nor was he a Muslim. And Mehta was too engrossed with his tablet to notice he was the target of abuse.


Burgess then elbowed Mehta in the face multiple times, grabbed him by the head and punched him. Mehta ended up with a loose tooth and a cut to his upper lip.


Burgess was arrested and taken to Allegheny County Jail. Police say he was staggering and slurring his speech when they found him. He faces charges of ethnic intimidation, simple assault, harassment and public drunkenness.


Because Burgess thought his victim was Muslim, the Pittsburgh chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has commented on the case.


“We believe this is just the latest incident in a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes since the November 8 election,” the group’s communications coordinator said in a statement published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


Anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States rose 67 percent this year, to 257 in 2015 from 154 in 2014, according to the latest FBI annual hate crimes report.