A commuter told the man to get off the train after he turned off his tablet computer when he turned to look at it
The man was forced off the Piccadilly line train near Finsbury Park
A MUSLIM man was forced off a tube train after a fellow commuter said he was ‘suspiciously using his iPad’ it has been claimed.
The irate passenger made the accusation after the man turned off his tablet when he turned to look at it.
Shocked onlookers stood up for the Muslim passenger branding the commuter a racist but he persisted and the Islamic passenger left the Piccadilly line train near Finsbury Park.
Jonny from Wood Green, said he felt 'sad and angry' about what he saw.
He said: “There was a guy stood up, dressed smartly with a man bag.
“He wasn't being overtly aggressive but he had clearly taken offence to something another passenger had done.
“I saw people reacting so I took my headphones off and realised he was asking someone who looked Arabic to get off the train amongst other things because he felt threatened by him.
“Apparently he had turned off his iPad as the smartly dressed man had looked at it, this was deemed to be 'suspicious' in his eyes.”
Although the scene upset Jonny he found the fact that others vastly outnumbered the bigot “heart warming”.
Jonny added: 'A couple of women, one sitting down, one standing up immediately interjected; the Arabic man looked pretty shocked and clearly didn't know what to do.
'I think he wanted to fight his corner but, thankfully plenty of people stood in between and stopped anything escalating.'
'It made me pretty sad and angry to actually see an incident like that but also the reaction of the people coming together to vastly outnumber a bigot was pretty heart-warming.'
Director of Islamophobia watchdog Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal, described the incident as a prime example of the discrimination Muslims face travelling on the tube.
He said: “Sadly, fears around Muslims in general are heightened and such actions have an impact
“We simply cannot let basal fears mean that our fellow citizens, British Muslims, who are part and parcel of our country, be consigned to a group of people that we are fearful of.”
British Transport Police have urged any victims of hate crime to come forward saying: “Everyone has the right to travel safely, and nobody should feel threatened on the rail network.
“Anyone who has been a victim of hate crime or has witnessed an incident should contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40. In an emergency always call 999.”
No comments:
Post a Comment