Another 'Muslim patrol' video feeds Islamophobia

on Monday, January 21, 2013

The Commentator provides an update on its "Muslim patrol" report with a more recent video, also apparently from Tower Hamlets, in which the self-appointed mutaween target a man they take to be gay.

The harassment recorded here is significantly more unpleasant and intimidatory than in the first video, and we can only hope that the people responsible are quickly identified, arrested and prosecuted. In fact the case underlines the need for new legislation to introduce specific homophobically aggravated offences, on a par with the racially and religiously aggravated offences already on the statute book.

However, it is almost certainly the same two individuals who are involved in this most recent video, one of whom carries out most of the actual harassment while the other records the victim's response on his mobile phone. This doesn't prevent The Commentator from referring to "Muslim Patrols" in the plural, in order to suggest that it is part of some wider and more frightening pattern.



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