Man arrested for asking Muslim woman to ‘explain Brussels’

Arguably, Matthew Doyle was rude to confront a stranger, or even, in his later version, to ask her politely to explain something with which she had no involvement. He was clumsily expressing the frustration that many non-Muslims feel over the general failure of Muslim communities in the West to do much of anything to stop the jihad violence they say they condemn. Where, as I have asked hundreds of times, are their programs to prevent young Muslims from adhering to the Islamic State’s understanding of Islam? If they really reject that understanding, these should be everywhere.

One might call Doyle obnoxious, boorish, ham-fisted, whatever. But to arrest him for this is shocking, and demonstrates how much Britain has degenerated. Now being impertinent or unkind to a Muslim on the street is a crime? If so, then the UK is well on its way to adopting the rest of Sharia, and its days as a free nation are over. Also, how many Muslims have been arrested in Britain for asking non-Muslims rude questions?

“Croydon man arrested after confronting Muslim woman and telling her to ‘explain Brussels,’” by Adam Boult, Telegraph, March 23, 2016:

A man who tweeted about stopping a Muslim woman in the street yesterday, challenging her to “explain Brussels”, and lambasted on Twitter for his comments, has responded to the criticism today, insisting he is not some ‘far right merchant’.

Matthew Doyle, partner at a south London-based talent & PR agency, posted a tweet on Wednesday morning saying: “I confronted a Muslim woman in Croydon yesterday. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said ‘nothing to do with me’. A mealy mouthed reply.”

He was later arrested.

His tweet referred to yesterday’s bomb attacks on the Belgian capital’s main airport and Metro system that left at least 34 people dead and 198 injured. His comment went viral, being retweeted hundreds of times before he eventually deleted it.

Mr Doyle told the Telegraph he had no idea his tweet would be the “hand grenade” it has proven to be – and that Twitter’s 140 character limit made the encounter sound vastly different to how he thought it went.

“What everyone’s got wrong about this is I didn’t confront the woman,” he said. “I just said: ‘Excuse me, can I ask what you thought about the incident in Brussels?’”

“She was white, and British, wearing a hijab – and she told me it was nothing to do with her.

“I said ‘thank you for explaining that’ – and her little boy said goodbye to me as we went out separate ways.”

On Wednesday afternoon, he says, someone who’s been outraged by his comments “turned up at my door, gave me a load of abuse and tried to throw a punch at me.”

As for his more inflammatory tweets, Mr Doyle claims they’re intended as a joke, which people who know him would understand as “that’s absolutely not who I am.”

“I’m not some far-right merchant, I’m not a mouthpiece for any kind of racism or radicalism,” he says. “If I was xenophobic I wouldn’t live in London.

“I have a Muslim neighbour who got burgled, and I was one of the first people to go around to help.”

However, he says he does believe Muslims aren’t doing enough to speak out against terrorism.

“The horror that happened in Brussels could happen here,” he adds, “and your naive if you think London isn’t on some terror shortlist.”…

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