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London:
Five people have been arrested in London after videos emerged online
of a group of men abusing passers-by for being gay, drinking alcohol
or wearing mini-skirts in what they said was a “Muslim area,” police
said.
The arrests were made over what Scotland Yard described as “filmed
harassments” in east London, an area with a high concentration of
Muslims, earlier this month.
Detectives voiced particular concern
about a YouTube video entitled “Muslim vigilantes in London harass
and taunt gay male,” in which a group of men verbally abuse a man in
the street for being homosexual.
“Don’t you know this is a Muslim
area?” an off-camera voice in the video says.
“You’re walking through a Muslim area
dressed like a fag, mate. You need to get out of here... You’re
dirty, mate. You’re gay mate, get out of here... You bloody fag.”
Detective Chief Inspector Wendy Morgan
urged the victim to come forward, saying the police “takes such
homophobic behavior very seriously.”
“This man is a crucial witness in the
investigation and would encourage him and anyone else with
information relating to this incident to make contact in confidence
as soon as possible,” she said.
Another video posted on YouTube,
entitled “Muslims enforcing Sharia Law on the streets of London” and
dated January 2013, shows other people being harassed. It shows a
group of men asking a woman in a mini-skirt to “not dress like this
in a Muslim area.”
The girl says she is “appalled,”
adding: “This is Great Britain.”
But the man says: “It’s not so Great
Britain.”
The men also ask revellers out on a
Saturday night to move away from their mosque, and demand that one
man put down his beer, saying: “No drink in this area... this is a
Muslim patrol. Alcohol is evil.”
Five men aged between 17 and 29 years
old have been arrested since Sunday, all on suspicion of grievous
bodily harm and public order offenses.
One was held in Acton, west London,
and the others in east London, police said.
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