LONDON – A Muslim student’s BBC interview on the rise of anti-Muslim hate on social media was interrupted by an Islamophobe who made hateful comments.
“It doesn’t really matter what I say, or what I’m writing about, or what I’m posting about. The responses after some kind of terrorist attack will always be slating Islam in some kind of way – or insulting Islam, or insulting me, or insulting my hijab,” Ruqaiya Haris, 23, a student and writer, was telling BBC reporter Catrin Nye about her experiences of online hate.
“Even if I’m talking about something totally unrelated. Even if I’m sending condolences to the victims.”
The interview with the London student followed the publication of new data showing 7,000 anti-Islamic tweets were sent every day in July.
Sitting for interview with Haris, the BBC reporter Catrin Nye was interrupted by a man who could be heard calling out, “There’s no Sharia law here yet!”
In the footage Haris asks him: “Do you want to talk about Sharia law to me? We’ll talk about Sharia law. You obviously said it for a reason.”
The man replies: “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Haris then asks: “Who were you talking to about Sharia law here, sir?”
The comments he made angered Harris who was being interviewed on Islamophobia.
“I stood up and said, ‘Why are you making these comments? Clearly you’re not happy this interview is taking place. You can see there’s a woman in a headscarf talking to the BBC. You obviously wanted some kind of reaction,’” Haris told BuzzFeed.
“We got into it and he said Muslims are trying to take over the world and went off on one. But then I’m trying to engage at him at the same time and he admitted at some point he didn’t actually know that much about Islam and Muslims.”
The student added: “I think in those scenarios they are probably very used to saying things to women on their own. We were sitting in Whitechapel – he’s probably used to saying those things to a mum, or an aunt, someone who might not speak English, a young girl on her own – and I think in those kind of scenarios not everyone wants to say something, which is completely understandable.
“I think in that situation I’m more than happy to stand up and challenge this person that has these preconceptions and has these prejudices. It’s a now-or-never kind of thing.”
The confrontation was not a surprise to Haris, saying she had become “hardened” to those kinds of comments after hearing of prejudice happening in schools, universities, and the workplace on a regular basis.
“I think because of the fact I get this online all the time,” she said, “though not something that happens in real life all the time … It does harden you to it.”
Women are more likely to face anti-Muslim hate than men, Haris said, “because we are more visibly Muslim and often seen as an easier target, and so I think it gives a lot of men a green light. It’s a very gendered form of abuse.”