LONDON – A British Muslim man was stopped on his way to London Regent mosque to perform Jumu`ah prayer by police forces, handcuffed and searched after an undercover police officer reported him for wearing too many cloths.
“I was rushing to JummahSalat and, when I was near the Masjid all of a sudden the police come and put hand cuffs on me, the women the undercover police officer said I was wearing too many clothes on, but I was on wear two layers of clothes,” a statement by the unnamed man to DOAM (Documenting Oppression Against Muslims) read.
“Police falsely accused me of carrying a weapon and so on and so forth they searched me and found nothing as usual and then they took my date of birth address and name and they let me go.”
The video of the innocent Muslim being handcuffed and searched by police has garnered over 5 million views and over 10,000 comments.
Many viewers have condemned the racial profiling and praised the man’s patience, while others have said the stop-and-search was fair and blamed the man’s fashion choice, saying the jacket he was wearing is mostly used for “wrong purposes” and should be avoided.
Sharing the video shot by the man’s friend, DOAM also shared a statement from the unnamed victim under the hashtag #WearingClothesWhileMuslim.
The incident comes amid a recent escalation of Islamophobia and police profiling of Muslims in the UK.
Following the London Bridge attack on June 3, the number of Islamophobic hate crimes has jumped five times in London, even despite the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan announcing a “zero-tolerance approach” to hate crimes in the city.
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, an expert on Islamic fundamentalism and trustee at the Muslim Institute, told the British National Council for Civil Liberties that Muslims were “one of the most marginalized and criminalized communities in Britain.”
“By extending the provision of internment to British nationals on the base of mere suspicion by intelligence agencies or the police will be seen by the community as a war on Islam not a war on terror.”