Chris Atkins/PAA man has been arrested in Birmingham in connection with a racist incident towards a Jewish family, which took place on the London Underground.
The suspect was reportedly taken into police custody on Saturday, November 23, after a video filmed the day before appeared to show a man reading anti-Jewish Bible verses to a Jewish family – a couple and their three young children – as they travelled on the Northern Line.
The video was filmed by a fellow commuter, who later shared it and appealed to anyone who might recognise the man to come forward.
Chris Atkins/PAFootage of the incident reportedly shows the man reading aloud from the Bible towards the family, as the father tries to distract his son.
One passenger tried to defend the family, asking the man to stop the anti-Semitic abuse, before the man threatens to punch him. A few moments later, another commuter tries to intervene, calmly questioning the man and asking him to stop the abusive behaviour.
The commuter, mum-of-two Asma Shuweikh, later told reporters she knew she had to confront the man, and she ‘wouldn’t hesitate to do it again’.
Chris Atkins/PAAsma said:
I would have loved more people to come up and say something because if everyone did, I do not think it would have escalated in the way that it did.
Being a mother-of-two, I know what it’s like to be in that situation and I would want someone to help if I was in that situation.
When he started talking to the child I thought, ‘no, I have to say something’. As a mother of two it’s appalling, I can’t sit back and watch that happen.
Chris Atkins/PAAsma added:
To be honest I thought it is my duty as a mother, as a practising Muslim, as a citizen of this country, to have to say something.
You can’t just sit back and watch that because I felt that it was just getting out of hand. It was really getting too much.
The footage was recorded by Chris Atkins, who later moved to swap seats with the family so they were further away from the man. Chris told BBC News: ‘It was the children that really got me and everyone else, he was just screaming at these children. It was horrific in every sense.’
Police say they have now arrested a man in Birmingham on suspicion of a racially-aggravated offence.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.