DUBAI: A London-based architect accused of attacking a Muslim woman has taken to Twitter to defend his actions, claiming his friend was the victim and that he was defending her.
Aniso Abdulkadir posted tweets carrying a photo of Pawel Uczciwek, claiming he tried to pull off her hijab while she waited for a train at Baker Street underground station.
She said he shouted at her, telling her to “show her hair,” and spat in her friend’s face.
The alleged incident happened in the early hours of Saturday morning.
At the time Abdulkadir tweeted: “This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me.”
She added: “He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face.”
Her claims were retweeted more than 35,000 times by Monday afternoon.
British police confirmed the incident was being investigated as a hate crime. A police spokesman added: “Behavior like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated… This incident has been reported to us and we’re investigating.”
But architect Pawel Uczciwek has now responded to the accusations, tweeting that the allegations made about him were “completely false.”
Defending his actions, he said his female friend was the victim of a racist attack and that he was trying to “diffuse” the situation.
London’s Metro newspaper quoted Uczciwek as saying: “The police is fully cooperating with me and will be able to obtain CCTV footage showing the three women attempting to attack my partner because we are in an interracial relationship.”
He added: “My partner was attacked by three people — i diffused it. The media does not even care that a black woman was attacked???
“Three people attempted to attack one person A BLACK WOMAN and there is not a care in the world from media???”
He tweeted that the perpetrators were treated as victims, adding: “I am shocked.”
Uczciwek wrote that he intervened to ensure none of the four women were harmed.
He added: “The media is using religion as a scapegoat because they clearly have no care for a black women being attacked in London.”