Arrest made after man tells UK Jewish boy he's part of ‘Church of Satan'

In an antisemitic incident on London's Northern Line, a Jewish father with his son was told that Jews are the ‘Church of Satan.’ Passengers challenged the man.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Men look at their phones at the underground platform in London (photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN COOMBS)
Men look at their phones at the underground platform in London
(photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN COOMBS)
A Jewish father with his child, both religious Jews wearing yarmulkes, were told by a passenger on the Northern Line underground service in London on Friday that he and his son are in "the Church of Satan," a video made by Twitter user Chris Takins shows. 

 
The man went on to claim that Jews are behind the 9/11 terror attacks and the slave trade. 

 
He was confronted not by the father of the boy, who remained calm and ignored him, but by other passengers who objected to him harassing the family.
One of those protesters was a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, who told him he should not pick on the child. He told her that “these are imposters trying to claim our heritage.” 
 
“This is not my opinion,” he can be heard telling her, “these are God’s words.” 
The woman, Asma Shuweikh, was on her way to visit a friend in hospital when the incident took place.
She told the PA news agency that the man boarded the train at Golder's Green station and initially sat down, until he spotted the Jewish family.
"With him being quite aggressive to the other passenger, I thought 'I can't just come to him and tell him what you're doing [is wrong] because he's going to be quite violent," she said.
"I was just assessing the situation. And I thought, if I reason with him and talk to him and pretend that I'm sympathetic with what he's saying, maybe I can diffuse the problem because he was actually talking to a little boy. It was really not nice to see that as a mother… They [the children] did actually get quite scared," she recounted.
Appealing to him as a Muslim, she confronted the man, telling him: "As a man of the book, I said 'If you believe in the Quran, you should give everyone the freedom to believe what they want to believe. You shouldn't stop and oppress people for what they believe in."
He then rounded on her, accusing her of being part of the 9/11 attack, and saying that, as a Muslim woman she "shouldn't be wearing trousers".
"I told him he needed to calm down, and take a step back and see where he is," she said. "I did start to panic when he came up into my face, but I managed to keep a calmness and keep trying to diffuse the situation.
"I just kept saying, 'shall I say something?' But London's my city, I can't allow this to happen. My husband keeps warning me to be careful, especially with all the racial attacks towards Muslim people, but I'm that type of person - if I see something wrong, I have to say something. I can't sit there and say nothing.
"It doesn't matter who it is. If someone's being abused, then someone needs to step in. I think we need to all step in to help."
 
British Transport Police confirmed on Saturday night that an arrest had been made in Birmingham in connection with the incident. The man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated section 5 public order offence.  He remains in custody.