Harming people like this takes a special breed of human and yep, there's plenty of them out there all willing to harm others because of their religious beliefs and other reasons also.
You're on the right track, being aware, and minimising your risk seems to me like a much better state to be in than to be careless and oblivious. People are so reliant on others these days that they forget they have the means to mitigate risk for themselves.