September 1, 2016 9.31 am This story is over 90 months old

Muslim family branded ‘terrorists’ and ridiculed by locals on day trip to Skegness

A group of Muslims were allegedly called terrorists, mocked for wearing hijabs and eyeballed on a day trip to Skegness. An anonymous account to Tell MAMA, a website measuring anti-Muslim attacks, described how the family received glares from people in the street who were staring at them as if they were “aliens”. The woman said that…
The group of Muslims were abused on a day trip to Skegness

A group of Muslims were allegedly called terrorists, mocked for wearing hijabs and eyeballed on a day trip to Skegness.

An anonymous account to Tell MAMA, a website measuring anti-Muslim attacks, described how the family received glares from people in the street who were staring at them as if they were “aliens”.

The woman said that the unpleasant experience on the Lincolnshire coast had opened her eyes to the nasty comments Muslims get, and she would be unlikely to return to Skegness in the future.

She said: “Me and my family went for a family trip for the first time to Skegness with a local community centre. Together there were 12 people, of which seven of us wore hijabs.

“Once we reached to the main area where there were shops, we noticed a lot of people just staring at us as if we were some form of aliens.

“It didn’t really bother us until we walked past the pub and a man shouted “terrorists”.

“My sister and I just looked at each other and didn’t bother looking back at the man and we were shocked at what he had said.

As we went to the beach again, a lot of people continuously stared at us. We just smiled back, but it made us think how ignorant these people are.

“We then went to buy some seaside ‘rock’ and the lady at the shop said “don’t you get hot in them”, referring to our hijabs. My sister replied “no” and they were not that thick and showed her the material of her hijab. She did not say anything after that and we left the shop.

“We saw another Muslim lady there and we were so happy to see her. She gave us a ‘salaam’ and smiled at us. She was the only Muslim I saw there.

“This was our first family trip with our kids to Skegness and I don’t think I would like to go again seeing the behaviour of the people there.

“It really made us sad and made us miss the area we are from and also made us reflect on how different people are in England.”