A good samaritan has been praised after a man was arrested for abusing a Jewish man and his children on the London Underground.
Video posted to Twitter shows the man bending over and reading the abusive material to his victims while other passengers look on in horror.
The man is then seen threatening fellow commuters who attempt to intervene.
A Jewish man comforts the boy as the man reads anti-Semitic passages on the London Underground. Source: Twitter/scatatkins
"Back up from me, I'm not no Christian pastor ... what are you going to do?" the man is heard saying.
After a brief debate, Asma Shuweikh interjects and encourages the man to remain calm.
"I respect your point of view," Ms Shuweikh says, attempting to draw the man's attention away from the Jewish children.
"No it's not my opinion its God's word, God's word!" he replies.
The attacker continues to debate the Muslim woman, questioning her faith due to her choice in clothing.
The interjection enables the Jewish man to share a laugh with his children in a bid to keep the young victims calm.
Ms Shuweikh's actions are now being praised on social media, attracting widespread applause for her bravery and selflessness.
As a parent, Ms Shuweikh told PA she knew she "had to confront" the attacker.
"I would have loved more people to come up and say something because if everyone did, I do not think it would have escalated in the way that it did," she told the news agency.
Ms Shuweikh distracts the man following his anti-Semitic attack. Source: Twitter/scatatkins
Chris Aitkens, the passenger who shared the video of the incident, told PA Ms Shuweikh was "firm and persistent" in her challenging.
"In this day and age we are told how intolerant everyone is and all religions hate each other and there you had a Muslim woman sticking up for some Jewish children," he said.
The Jewish father, who wishes to remain anonymous, has thanked Ms Shuweikh for her bravery.
“We are certain that without her intervention and distraction, he would have continued his abuse which could have escalated to physical violence," he said in a statement.
“I would like to meet Asma in person to thank her.”
I would like to meet Asma in person to thank her. Jewish father
The father now concedes the incident has left his family "deeply worried and confused."
“It is clear that antisemitism is still rife, it just happens that a small two-minute snippet of this long episode was caught on camera,” he added.
Police said they received a number of reports about the incident and acted swiftly in arresting the alleged offender.
Cases of anti-Semitic confrontations have risen across the UK in 2019, according to a report published in August.
The Community Security Trust, a charity group that monitors such incidents across Britain, claims more than 890 incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2019, marking a 10 per cent increase year on year.
The statistic is also the highest number of attacks in this period since records began back in 1984.
