Summary The incident caused an uproar on Twitter as alleged attacker denies charges. Photo:The Independent
(Web Desk) - Police in the United Kingdom are probing a suspected hate crime after a man allegedly pulled off a Muslim woman’s hijab and spat at her friend. However, in a recent development the man in question has denied the allegations online and said that he was simply trying to defend his girlfriend.
According to The Independent, the alleged incident occurred when the woman ,who has identified herself as Aniso Abdulkadir, was waiting for a tube at the Baker Street station during the early hours of Saturday morning. Suddenly, Abdulkadir says a man grabbed at her headscarf and then hit her. The same man then pinned her friend, who was accompanying her, against a wall and degradingly spat on her. The woman who was with the man also verbally threatened the victim.
After this suspected ordeal Abdulkadir posted about the incident on Twitter,writing that the man had attempted to rip off her hijab and when she had resisted he had hit her.
— Aniso.safiaadya (@AnisoAbdulkadir) July 15, 2017
Aniso Abdulkadir has accused the man of assault in a tweet.
The woman also put up a picture of her alleged attacker and pressed others to share the image so that the suspect could be identified. This plea got the post to be retweeted more than 28,000 times by Sunday afternoon.
However, the man who has identified himself online as Pawel Uczciwek has hit back at the allegations stating that he did nothing wrong.
According to the Daily Mail, Uczciwek tells a very different version of the story. He says he never hit or attacked anyone and was simply trying to defuse the situation when the three women in question attempted to assault his black partner because they were “in an interracial relationship.”Uczciwek has also said that he is fully cooperating with the authorities and has posted comments on his Twitter account supporting his version of events.
Uczciwek denies any wrongdoing. Photo courtesy: Daily Mail
The British Transport Police say that they have received a statement from Uczciwek and are treating the suspected attack as a hate crime. A spokesman from the force commented that, “Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Inquiries about the incident are ongoing and the police have asked anyone with any information to get in touch with them.
Racial and religious hate crimes are increasing across the UK with reports showing that such incidents increased 23% (from 40,741 to 49,921) in the 11 months following the European Union referendum. More worryingly for the Muslim community are the series of violent attacks that have occurred in recent days such as the Finsbury Park vehicle ramming and the London acid attack on Muslim cousins.
