A Dublin taxi driver’s 2020 began with a torrent of Islamophobic abuse from a New Year’s Eve reveller early on Wednesday morning.
The driver, who has lived in Ireland for over 15 years, was told that one day he will be ‘pushed out of the country’ after he picked up a passenger in the city centre.
Mohammed, 31, who is originally from North Africa and now lives in Blanchardstown, was in ‘shock’ after the abuse and said he has never experienced anything like it before.
Mohammed told IrishMirror.ie: “Once he got into the car he said, ‘Are you Muslim?’, then he said, ‘One day we will cop on and we will get you out of this country.’
“I said, ‘But why? Why do you blame me for stuff I didn’t do? Telling me I hate women?'
“I don’t hate women, my mam is a woman, my fiancée is a woman, my sister is a woman.
The abusive man was travelling home with a friend who asked to get out of the taxi as he didn't like how he was speaking to the driver.
Mohammed said: “His friend said, 'Please stop the cab I’m going to get off. I cannot go with him. He keeps doing this to every taxi man.’ "
Mohammed stopped his car before taking out his phone to film the man's abuse.
Video footage shows the man leaning into the passenger side of the taxi telling Mohammed he ‘hates women’ and ‘executes women for adultery’.
He said: “You hate Ireland. You are a Muslim and you hate Ireland. I’m telling you now, you hate women, and your religion treats women like rubbish.
“Go on YouTube and go to Saudi Arabia, go to Iran, and you execute women who commit adultery. You stone women.
Mohammed is heard asking the man, “What has that got to do with me? Why are you being rude to me?”
Mohammed said he started working as a taxi driver just three weeks ago and never experienced anything like this before.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Mohammed said: “I’m in Ireland 15 years. I’ve done my Leaving Cert and I’ve gotten a degree.
“I was shocked (when the incident happened). I was really shocked.
“I’ve lived in Ireland 15 years and this is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this.
“My friends who are Irish started saying sorry for what happened but I said it’s not their fault, you know.
“I was thinking about stopping the taxi now. I have a friend as a taxi man and he said you see a lot of this and I was like, ‘What?’ ”
