A man has been apprehended after a viral video depicted a group of Muslim women enduring Islamophobic and racist verbal abuse while walking down a street.
The women were subjected to derogatory language, including being called “fing cs”, “Muslim cs”, “fing idiots”, “cancers”, and were instructed to “f*** off out of England” as they walked along South Street in Romford, Essex.
Havering Police confirmed on Sunday night that a 55-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences in response to the “distressing footage”.
The footage shows a man, dressed in skinny jeans and a black puffer jacket, trailing behind the women wearing headscarves, while making inflammatory remarks about rocket attacks targeting Israel “every day”.
When one of the women tries to get him to move away from them and says he is harassing them, he responds: “Harassing? We don’t like you. F*** off back to Muslim c******. We are a Christian country and we don’t f***ing like you. F*** off out of England. You are a cancer on our country. F***off. You are a cancer. We are a Christian country and we don’t like you. we are not a Muslim country.”
At another point, he also says: “You Muslim f***ing c****. You’re c****. Muslim c****. You f****** Muslim s***. Go away you f***ing idiots.”
The footage was originally posted to social media on Saturday by Redbridge Community Action Group, a London-based charity which called for people to help them identify the “sick racist”.
They said: “Watch as this coward physically threatens and subjects a group of women with his vile, horrific, racist and Islamophobic slurs. We stand with them in solidarity!”
The organisation later issued a longer statement which said: “This is yet another horrific incident of Islamophobia which many Muslims have to face.
“What these brave women had to endure is simply unthinkable and thankfully they were able to ward off his violent intimidation by defending each other. One can only wonder what may have happened if they were alone. The fact that no one intervened, just shows how frightened people are to confront Islamophobic racism.”
The next day, Havering Police posted: “We arrested a 55-year-old man on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences.
“This follows distressing footage shared earlier of a group of women being racially abused in South Street, Romford yesterday. The man has been taken into custody.”
