Calls for police action after video posted of man spraying stain remover at Muslim woman

Furore has erupted over an “Islamophobe” filming himself spraying a Muslim woman with a stain remover. Twitterati are calling for the man to be tracked down and prosecuted over what has been called an “illegal” stunt.

The video – shared on social media by Muslim community network 5Pillars – shows the man roaming around the with a pink Vanish spray. He then says: “Let’s see if this f*cking stuff works,” before he points the camera at a woman in a hijab and squirts the product at her.

The victim seems to not notice the man behind her, and carries on with her shopping.

The location of the video or whether it has been reported to the police is not known.

Twitter users have lashed out at the man, with one calling the incident an “assault.”

“He has sprayed a chemical on someone. I hope he has been reported to the police, what he did here is illegal. This is an assault,” he wrote.

Journalist CJ Werleman, one of the first to share the video, wrote: “While I’m hesitant to give oxygen to this racist’s hate, it does illustrate the increasing marginalization and stigmatisation Muslims now face.”

Another appalled viewer, Imran Memon, commented: “This has become a norm in our community because they know they can get away with it.”

READ MORE: ‘Punish a Muslim Day’: Man charged in connection with Islamophobic letter campaign

Britain’s leading anti-Muslim hate crime organization, Tell Mama, claims in its annual report for 2016 that Muslim women are the most likely to be targeted because their Islamic clothing makes their religion evident. The largest percentage of perpetrators remained white males. It also found that the majority of offline anti-Muslim hate crime incidents occur in public spaces (30 percent).

According to a Home Office report, religious hate crimes increased by 35 percent between 2015-16 and 2016-17, up 1,549 to 5,949.

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