A Muslim woman was shouted at and called “f*cking Muslim scum” and threatened by a female passenger who said they would follow her and “rip her f*cking hijab off” when on a bus in south London.
Speaking to Tell MAMA, she described how this passenger had first accused her, without evidence, of ‘pushing’ a woman with a pushchair before her language morphed into paroxysms of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic abuse.
Other hateful slurs shouted included “f*cking Muslim b*tch” and the threat of showing “your f*cking hair to everyone”.
When she attempted to exit the bus, the perpetrator, who was in front of her, spat in her face as she exited the bus, and then ran off. After the initial shock passed, she called the police and reported the hate crime.
Tell MAMA is now liaising with the Metropolitan Police on their behalf regarding this hate crime which occurred on October 8.
She described the perpetrator as being a black female in their early twenties.
Tell MAMA did see a drop in assaults recorded in the 2018 reporting cycle, with 98 verified reports (13 per cent), down from the 2017 figure of 149.
The report, however, cautioned that “the rising instances of discrimination, hate speech, and anti-Muslim literature indicate that a more general intolerance and hatred is growing”.
It also found that forty-four per cent of the total victims who contacted Tell MAMA were wearing a hijab or other veiling practice when incidents occurred.
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