News / Transport
Coach company fights back in Muslim row
National Express has come out fighting against allegations that staff asked a Muslim to leave a bus in Bristol after complaints from other passengers who felt he looked “shifty”.
The coach company denied the incident was discriminatory and added that the customer was abusive towards staff before being removed.
It was alleged that a man who was carrying a printer as hand luggage had been thrown off a coach at Bristol Bus Station on Marlborough Street after fellow passengers said they felt “uncomfortable”. The news, reported in the Bristol Post, made national headlines.
Passengers on the bus were told the man had been made to leave the half-full coach because he was carrying too much luggage.
But eyewitnesses called the incident ridiculous and criticised National Express for acting on “unfounded and Islamophobic beliefs” of some passengers.
The coach company responded robustly to the story via Twitter:
Labour councillor for Easton, Afzal Shah, was due to visit the bus station on Monday to demand a response and call for an investigation.
He said: “Have we really returned to days where people are kicked off buses because of the colour of skin, their appearance or religion? Have we, has a society, really regressed to such mindless discrimination?
“National Express has a lot of questions to answer. Yes, people who are behaving suspiciously on public transport should be challenged, but when someone is apparently asked to leave a bus because they are a Muslim carrying a bag, that is unacceptable and Islamophobic.”
National Express said they would respond to Shah’s comments on Monday.
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