POLICE have arrested a bus driver who allegedly called a woman passenger a Muslim terrorist and asked her if she had put a bomb on his bus.
An investigation was launched by First Buses in Leeds after Turkish-born Hatice McGraffin, 29, claimed a driver made the inflammatory remarks as she boarded her bus on her way to work on Thursday.
The 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of racially/religiously aggravated harassment and remained in police custody at the time of printing.
Mrs McGraffin, 29, from Otley, who is married to Englishman Ian, said the driver told her: “You are an Islamic terrorist – you have put a bomb on the bus’. I asked people on the bus ‘are you listening to this’ but they ignored me.
“I am not even a practicing Muslim and I am married to an Englishman.
“There are lots of Muslim people living in this country, does he think they are all terrorists?”
It’s happening up and down the country every day. Innocent Muslims or people who look vaguely ‘Muslim’ are targeted and abused. Is this another example of the emerging ‘acceptable face’ of prejudice? Are Muslims the new ‘chavs’ and ‘gippos’, or the new 1930s German Jews?
We applaud this young woman for standing up for herself and the police for taking immediate action.
It was another lone woman on a bus who changed the course of history for the better. Rosa Parks is now regarded as the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey a bus driver’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her one small act of bravery helped change the course of history. She later said: “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free,” and, “I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.”
We hope Mrs McGraffin’s actions will encourage others to come forward and stand up for themselves.
MPACUK
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