This was received from a Muslim woman who has agreed for her case to be listed publicly. This is the second set of experiences today which show the impact of anti-Muslim hatred on Muslim women and the vile and abhorrent nature of this hate.
Sadly, what is depressing is that no-one stepped in to assist the woman and once again, anti-Muslim abuse on the buses comes up and public transport seems to be an arena in which such bigotry is promoted, mainly to visible Muslim females.
“I’ve been meaning to send this for a while and I don’t even know why but I felt quite ashamed that the incident happened to me, however with much thought I should speak up and I should bring light to such incidents.
This happened around the first week of September.
I was on the bus and I actually didn’t even notice the man nor what he was saying as I was just minding my own business. He was speaking for about 5 mins until it heard he was having a conversation about God and what he believe in, which is totally fine…however he quickly moved on to how Muslims believe in THAT God and how crazy we are… Again if he wants to think that, that’s fine, but it moved onto much deeper issues about terrorism, wars and over taking the country.
He was obviously targeting me due to the fact I was the only Muslim on the bus and I was clearly wearing a headscarf signifying I am Muslim.
He continued taking about how we must go back to our country ( I’m actually half British ) and how we come to this country and make wars, how all we do is make wars and how Muslims are terrorists. He got louder and louder talking about how we are a threat and how we are terrorists etc
Obviously I remained silent, the entire bus was also silent and everyone obviously knew he was talking about me.
I honestly felt threatened, uncomfortable and also the fact I was coming off the bus, he was behind me and came off the bus with me. At this point I was honestly scared for my life as I just didn’t know what he was capable of. He then proceeded to follow me off the bus and down the street still saying things about how we come to the country and start wars and how we come and just build mosques everywhere and how we need to get out. Of course I remained silent and walked down the street I lived on, he then walked away.
Hope this helps with your journey in highlighting Islamophobia and issues that are happening. And what scared me the most is I am a vocal person but this was the first time such a thing had happened to me, I was just in shock and I can’t believe I even felt ashamed after almost like it was my fault this happened, and I think many other women out there will probably feel the same when such a horrible verbal attack happens.
Good luck with all the research and I hope one day we can all live without fear.”