Man receives threats after accused of pulling hijab off Muslim woman
A London commuter accused of pulling a hijab off a Muslim has received threats and hate messages after the woman's tweet of the incident went viral.
Aniso Abulkadir said she was waiting for a tube at a London station early Saturday morning when she claims Pawel Uczciwek tried to pull her hijab off, then hit her.
But Mr Uczciwek maintains the accusations made against him in the woman's tweet were false. He instead said he was defending his girlfriend from a racial attack.
"This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me," she tweeted with a picture of the couple.
"He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face.”
Ms Abulkadir also described a woman he was with as being verbally abusive.
The police is involved however,I am shocked the media has done nothing to bring forward the attack on my partner because she is black
— Pawel Uczciwek (@PawelUczciwek) July 16, 2017
Mr Uczciwek identified himself as the man in the picture but said he was only trying to "diffuse” the situation when the group made racist comments towards her partner about interracial marriage.
"Absolutely ridiculous, she was the one who approached us and made comments before we even noticed her,” he tweeted.
He also denied his girlfriend attacked the Muslim women, as well as the claims his partner was racist.
"She's putting the blame solely at our feet, swearing that she has Muslim relatives, that she would never be Islamophobic," he wrote.
Followiwng Ms Abulkadir's post social media followers came out attacking Mr Uczciwek.
"You deserve to be beaten up, infact you deserve torture both of you cowards! You deserve to be killed infact and die a slow painful death!"
Others warned he should 'watch his back'.
The media is using religion as a scapegoat because they clearly have no care for a black women being attacked in London
— Pawel Uczciwek (@PawelUczciwek) July 16, 2017
In a statement, Mr Uczciwek said: "I would like to confirm I never hit or attacked anyone I simply defused the situation by separating them.
He said he was obtaining CCTV of the women allegedly harassing his partner and that police were cooperating with the pair as they investigate the incident.
British Transport Police said in a statement: "Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This incident has been reported to us and we're investigating.”
"We are investigating both elements of the allegation of the hate crime and the counter allegation by the gentleman on Twitter,” a British Transport Police spokesman also told the Mirror Online.
