Working on the area of anti-Muslim hate incidents and crimes, there are cases that are particularly troubling and one of these was reported into us today.
It involved a 67-year-old Hijab wearing Somali Muslim woman who was attacked as she got off a bus in North London. The attacker, a white male, then tried to punch her in the face, though thankfully, the force of the attack glanced off the face of the woman as she moved her head to get away from the force of the blow. The perpetrator had been waiting for the bus and seeing the Somali senior citizen step off the vehicle, he diverted his attention to her.
The victim then crossed over the road as the perpetrator followed her and shocked and frightened, she continued to walk away from the male who was by now shouting, “f**king Muslim bitch.”
What makes this case even more shocking is that the Somali woman could not speak English, suffered an assault to her head and was a senior citizen just going about her daily duties. Also, in the course of this attack, she appealed to a passing member of the public who intervened and the perpetrator subsequently ran off. This good Samaritan, probably saved her from further injuries and further possible trauma.