Without any apology whatsoever, what is it about fundamentalist Christians who think they can attack members of other religions and get away with it? Well one had his come-uppance on the London Underground last week and hopefully after he has (now) been arrested and charged, he will have some time to reflect on his attack.
Friday morning, a Jewish father and his two children, all wearing skullcaps,, were travelling on the London Underground when they came under a verbal attack. man spouted quotes from the New Testament which were used as anti-Semitic slurs. Such was the vitriol, that the father quite genuinly feared that it would become physical, indeed the man threatened violence to another male passenger who tried to intervene. Then a Muslim woman came to their defence. This is a video taken by another passenger
The British Transport Police issued an appeal after the video was posted on-line and a man has now been arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of a racially-motivated offence.
The brave woman has been identified and interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live and the (unnamed) father wants to meet and thank Asma Shuweikh for intervening. In the interview, Ms Shuweikh said.
When he started talking to the child I thought, 'no, I have to say something'. As a mother of two it's appalling, I can't sit back and watch that happen.
To be honest I thought it is my duty as a mother, as a practising Muslim, as a citizen of this country, to have to say something.
The commuter who took the video, Chris Atkins, who recorded the incident, said she was very firm and persistent.
"In this day and age we are told how intolerant everyone is and all religions hate each other, and there you had a Muslim woman sticking up for some Jewish children," he said
There seems to be a very small number of Christian ferverts who see it as their God-given right to cause a nuisance on public transport in London by shouting selected passages from their book. I have personally encountered a couple including one woman ranting on the tube about homosexuality quoting from Leviticus. Unfortunately as a vegetarian, I did not have a prawn sandwich to offer her but did point out loudly and persistently that she was wearing mixed fibres!