Muslim posts video of racist abuse in London supermarket

The Bristol Post reports on another incident of Muslim-bashing in a public space with news of a video posted on Facebook by a young Muslim male who was told to “go back to where you came from” in a London supermarket.

Zubair Munsif posted footage from the encounter on his Facebook page. It follows a different video which went viral last week, when two young Muslim women confronted a man in Exeter city centre as he shouted abuse at them.

Munsif explains in his post that he was shopping at the supermarket when he bumped into an old family friend. When he greeted the friend with the Islamic greeting, “Salaam”, he heard someone from behind shout out at him: “Are you Muslim?”

When Zubair replied that he was, the elderly white male who asked him the question responded: “go back to where you came from. I hate Muslims”.

Zubair’s post highlights the poignancy of seepage with anti-immigrant rhetoric in the EU referendum campaign sliding into anti-Muslim sentiment on the streets.

He wrote, “Politicians are scaremongering and the only argument that is being heard is of immigrants coming here and taking jobs, housing and the like. Ultimately you follow the line and it turns into an anti Muslim rhetoric. The likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Britain First and Donald Trump are the voices that are being heard.

“Muslims and migrants end up being demonised, and the referendum becomes a pointless immigration debate instead.”

The sentiments echo a letter published in The Guardian today from peers Sayeeda Warsi and Doreen Lawrence, and former director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, in response to an interview published in The Sunday Telegraph this week with Nigel Farage.

The UKIP leader, who has already faced heavy criticism for scaremongering about Turkey in referendum literature and statements, said in the interview at the weekend, “The nuclear bomb this time would be about Cologne.”

Farage went on to claim that immigration to the EU brought with it “some very big cultural issues.” The comments are on par with his earlier claims about Muslims in the UK being “fifth columnists”.

In their letter, Baronesses Warsi and Lawrence with Chakrabarti said: “Veiled threats of sexual assault by a new immigrant community stray too close for comfort to the race hate laws, and certainly cross the line of civilised discourse and rational debate.”

The effects of straying from “civilised discourse and rational debate” can certainly be seen in the videos Muslims have recently posted online displaying everyday abuse.