A defiant young British Asian woman who grinned as she confronted the English Defence League after a Muslim woman in a headscarf was surrounded by up to 25 men said today: ‘Sometimes it’s more important to smile than to shout’.
The moment protester Saffiyah Khan faced down extremist supporters including their leader Ian Crossland became the enduring image of the group’s march in Birmingham on Saturday.
In the face of vitriol she smiled and today she winked as she said she was ‘not scared in the slightest’ by the EDL but was taken away by police for her own safety during the stand-off.
Miss Khan, a proud ‘Brummie’ born in the UK to Pakistani and Bosnian parents, said she felt compelled to confront Ian Crossland and more than 20 others because of the way they allegedly treated a Muslim woman.
She said: ‘A group of 25 quite big-looking EDL lads, they surrounded her. She was terrified. I don’t like seeing people getting ganged up on in my town’.
She added: ‘The picture sums it up. It wasn’t a pleasant interaction’.
In response Mr Crossland described her as a ‘left wing scrubber’ who is ‘lucky’ to have teeth left in her mouth in an angry Facebook post.
The woman in the hijab, known only as Saira, from Birmingham, said she travelled to the city centre to oppose the EDL.
She said: ‘I was born and bred in this country so for these people to be saying these things was very wrong.
‘The majority of those people who supported me were not Muslim which shows it is a matter of humanity.’
Saira told how the EDL protesters thrust a flag in her face and told her she was not welcome in the country.
She said: ‘There was someone behind me putting an Islamophobic placard above my head and resting it on my head and another person was shoving an EDL flag in my face.
‘I was quite alarmed by the level of racism towards me.’
