Muslim man kicked off of London train for ‘suspicious’ iPad use

A Muslim man was allegedly kicked off London's Underground after a fellow passenger said he was using his iPad 'suspiciously'.

The accusations were made after the man turned off his tablet when the commuter had turned to look at it, on a Piccadilly line train.

Appalled onlookers tried to stand up for the accused and called the commuter a racist, but he carried on with his complaint and the Muslim passenger left the train near Finsbury Park.

One witness who would only be named as Jonny, said the man accusing was unphased even when other people got involved in the dispute.

Jonny from Wood Green, told the Evening Standard that he felt 'sad and angry' by what he saw.

He said: 'There was a guy stood up, dressed smartly with a man bag.

'He wasn't being overtly aggressive but he had clearly taken offence to something another passenger had done.

'I saw people reacting so I took my headphones off and realised he was asking someone who looked Arabic to get off the train amongst other things because he felt threatened by him.

'Apparently he had turned off his iPad as the smartly dressed man had looked at it, this was deemed to be 'suspicious' in his eyes.'

He added: 'A couple of women, one sitting down, one standing up immediately interjected; the Arabic man looked pretty shocked and clearly didn't know what to do.

'I think he wanted to fight his corner but, thankfully plenty of people stood in between and stopped anything escalating.'

'It made me pretty sad and angry to actually see an incident like that but also the reaction of the people coming together to vastly outnumber a bigot was pretty heart-warming.'

Fiyaz Mughal, director of Islamophobia watchdog Tell MAMA, said it was a prime example of the discrimination that Muslims often faced when travelling on public network.

He said: 'Sadly, fears around Muslims in general are heightened and such actions have an impact.

'We simply cannot let basal fears mean that our fellow citizens, British Muslims, who are part and parcel of our country, be consigned to a group of people that we are fearful of.'

 He added: 'This cannot be allowed to happen and plays into the hands of extremists who want to divide us.

'A comment here, asking not to be in a carriage with a Muslim or asking for a Muslim passenger to fly on another plane, are gifts for IS and their desire to tear our communities apart.'

A spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) urged any victims of hate crimes to come forward and report their experiences to the authorities.

He said: 'Everyone has the right to travel safely, and nobody should feel threatened on the rail network.