A brave Muslim guard in London is in the highlight as he single-handedly fended off a knife-wielding attacker on Monday in the famous theatre district and rescued two men. The attack occurred in the wake of anti-immigration far-right riots across England, which targeted mosques and asylum seekers’ homes – the victims of the arson included an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman.
Twitter very quickly identified the man who intervened in the behavior of the attacker, highlighting his Muslim origin. The BBC revealed the brave man’s name as Abdullah, a 29-year-old security guard at the TWG Tea shop in Leicester Square. Abdullah narrated how he and his companions overpowered the attacker and treated the young girl who had been injured.
He said: “I heard a scream and went out of the house to find a man with a knife. ” “The moment I saw it, I just jumped on him,” she said, “grabbed his hand, put him down on the floor and then kicked the knife away. I did not have time to think about what I was doing. ”
In Abdullah’s account, other men came in immediately, and together, they restrained the attacker for about “four to five minutes” till the arrival of assistance. He said: “It is horrible. I’ll be honest with you here: I have never witnessed anything like that. To do this to a kid is horrible. ”
He said that he and his colleagues rushed to the girl’s aid and tried stabilizing her before the ambulance arrived. The girl was described as having ‘serious’ but non-fatal injuries, for which she was rushed to the hospital. The woman, on the other hand, would be said to have sustained ‘more minor’ injuries.
Even when asked, Abdullah did not show any bearing and overstated his efforts, saying, ‘I saw a kid being stabbed, and I tried to save her. It’s in me to save them.’
This latter encounter drew much attention on social media platforms; most users applauded Abdullah for his courage to confront the armed person and wondered about the truthfulness of the TV networks. An author’s fan from Instagram, Eden Morrissey, said: let there be more of Abdullah!!!
Some people complained about media bias and posted such comments as from @sophinakhanartistry: “What a HERO!!!! Where’s the mainstream news about a brown, MUSLIM person saving lives?!”
It also inevitably brought into focus issues about violence against women, something that @fvneralmoonx further noted, “Another instance of male violence against women and yet the far right will remain, mum, just as they were rampaging for our ‘women ‘and children’ the other day. ”
After the riots, the police expected some action over the weekend, but the main disturbances were averted as such. Nonetheless, civil servants, including the staff of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, continue to be cautious, as they understand that the efforts to deal with the aftermath of the riots are still in progress.
In a way, the relatively fast response of the community in looking for Abdullah as a symbol of the fight against the far-right demonstrates that people still stand together with others when attacked and remember that we are all human beings.
