Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-03-06

Racism has reared its ugly head after a Muslim man from Brits in the North West was allegedly verbally assaulted by two men.

Zain*, a manager at a petrol station told Radio Islam that he arrived at the station at 10:47pm on Wednesday night (5 March 2014) to find two white men in their early 20’s on a scooter bike on the forecourt engaged in an alleged drug deal with a foreign national.

As reported to Radio Islam: [sic] “They had beer bottles. The one guy had a big beer bottle in his hand and there was loud music playing and they were busy doing a deal with some foreigners.”

“So I just pulled up, and when I pulled up, the foreigner gave the guy the stuff, jumped in the car and the foreigners pulled away in a white Golf with Eastern Cape number plates” added Zain.

Zain said he told the men in Afrikaans that he didn’t want them drinking and doing unsavoury deals on the forecourt, and asked them to leave.

That was when one of them allegedly approached Zain who he claims was intoxicated.

“He told me in Afrikaans: [sic] ‘I throw diesel every day here by your garage. What you gonna say about that?’ So I told him ‘I don’t care if you throw diesel, you can go throw diesel somewhere else, but you can’t come here to my garage with your loud music, with your alcohol and everything, it’s against my religion,” said Zain.

According to Zain the other man restrained his friend telling him: “Los home alleen (want) dis teen hulle geloof en hulle eet nie vark ook nie” (Leave him alone, because it against their religion and they don’t eat pig).

As Zain walked back to his vehicle an alleged verbal tirade was lashed out at him.

“Dis n vark geloof, (it’s a pig religion) said one of the men to Zain.” Zain responded by saying: “don’t speak of my religion like that.” That’s when the man approached Zain again and blasphemed, screaming all the while saying: “Mohammad is a vark en eet vark.” (Mohammad is a pig and eats pig).

Fearing for his safety and seeing the fear on the faces of the petrol attendants, Zain told the staff to attend to the same clients and assist them with whatever they wanted, like cold drinks, chocolates, while he decided to go home after the traumatic incident.

One of the man allegedly requested dagga.

Zain left the garage and crossed the railway line close to his home and tried to flag down a security company vehicle, to no avail. He then phoned the garage and asked them to activate or press the alarm panic button and also called his partner to relay that evening’s events.

According to Zain, after two minutes the two men also left the garage and followed him.

The two white men than jumped off their bikes and approached Zain’s car while he was with his partner on the phone hurling profanities, like “Jou Koelie, jou Mohammad” at him.

Zain also unleashed a verbal tirade on men and then drove off.

The two men started pursuing Zain, chasing him in the town; while he was speaking to his friends seeking assistance and even trying to get the attention of the town security, who failed to notice the drama.

“Eventually I found a security company at a petrol station. And the security company escorted me home” added Zain.

The incident at the service station was captured by the CCTV camera.

The matter was reported by Zain to the local police station who is investigating the incident.

Zain also told Radio Islam that one of the men responsible for the fracas apologised profusely for his actions to him today at the police station.  

*Name changed to protect the person involved.

(Twitter: @Faizie143)