Glasgow racist attacks mother in front son, 11, at bus stop

The Herald Scotland

6 days ago

It was as if the sight of her niqab had surprised him, she reflects. He did a double-take before beginning to curse at the 36-year-old mother of two. At first, Fatma tried to ignore him. A few commuters stood, milling around the bus stop, watching the incident unfold.
She took a step back, widening the space between them. But after two minutes, Fatma began filming the encounter on her phone. It was not the first time she was subjected to racist abuse. She had experience in dealing with such a situation, but this time was the worst.
Fear began to take hold of her. The boy was already terrified. She asked her son to pass over his phone so she could call the police.
At first, her son protested. 'We have to do this for our security reasons,' Fatma told him.
She tried to ignore Chalmers while answering questions from the police officers over the phone. She tried not to give him any attention, the camera shaky in her hand. She wasn't intending to film his face; she just wanted a record of what was happening. At least to capture his voice, the things he was saying to her and her frightened child.
'I'm filming this because it's not the first time this has happened to me,' she says to the police over the phone. She is certain the man has approached her because she is a Muslim, covering her face.
'P**** off. Get to f***. P*** off, rat,' Chalmers called. 'Get to f**** you wee rat. Go away. P*** off. Get to f****. Rat c***.'
Fatma moves to get the bus stop number from the shelter to relay it to the officers on the phone.
'Tell them to come down then,' Chalmers said. 'Rat. P*** off. Show your f***ing coupon. Nothing to show you wee mug.'
The man moved suddenly towards Fatma. 'Show your f***ing face,' he said.
'Keep away from me,' she said, pulling back. 'Keep away. Don't come.'
He continued to shout at her, calling her a rat and swearing.
Fatma's fear heightened. She told the police over the phone that he had tried to take her niqab off.
'Take your son with you,' Chalmers said. 'Go to Birmingham.'
A bystander stepped in following Chalmers' remarks. He told Chalmers to stay away before turning to ask Fatma if she was okay. 'No, I'm not okay,' she said. Her voice breaks, and Fatma begins to cry. Chalmers continued shouting behind them. 'Take, take, take,' he said.
Glasgow mum Fatma Elaraby (Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) Glasgow mum Fatma Elaraby with her sons. (Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) The police arrived after around ten minutes, and Chalmers was arrested. Fatma's brother met her and her son at the police station, where they were giving their statements.
Fatma's son was badly shaken in the wake of the incident. He used to love playing outside, but after the attack, he refused to go out. Fatma worried about his mental health and gently persuaded him to play outside. 'I know it's not the first incident you've encountered with me, but you have to move on,' she told him. 'You have to keep going.'
She found the police officers to be really helpful. Chalmers was charged with a hate crime, having found to have been acting in a manner which was racially aggravated and which caused alarm or distress and was sentenced to 12 months of supervision. He was required to pay a fine of £500, and a Community Payback Order was imposed, which included the requirement to perform unpaid work.
At first, Fatma was worried he would only be charged with a fine. If it were just money, he could borrow it from anyone and just pay it back. But with community service, she hoped Chalmers would think a million times before attacking a migrant after that. He was just 'repeating quotes from the far right', like telling her to go back to her country.
'This is my country as well,' she says. 'I'm a migrant here, I have a valid visa here. I'm not here doing something illegal. I pay taxes the same way you pay taxes.'
Fatma moved to Newcastle from Egypt three years ago with her two sons. She lived there for nine months ('I never faced a problem, it was very good for me,' she says) before coming to Glasgow, where her brother and his family were living.
The incident at the bus stop happened on July 29, 2024. It was the same day that Axel Rudakubana, 17, carried out a 12-minute knife rampage in Southport, attacking a children's Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop. Two girls died at the scene of the mass stabbing, and another died in the hospital the following day. Six children and two adults were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
After the stabbings, false claims circulated online that Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker (he was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents). By the evening of July 30, rioters swarmed the streets of Southport, throwing objects at a local mosque and police officers. Over the next five days, demonstrators clashed with police officers in cities around the country and the discontent carried on for weeks. The rhetoric of the rioters was awash with racist and anti-immigrant language. Yet in Glasgow, an anti-immigration demonstration in George Square on September 7 was met by thousands of anti-racism counter-protesters.
Police Scotland recorded 6,227 hate crimes in 2023-24, the lowest since 2014-15. Glasgow City had the second highest number of reports with 22 crimes per 10,000 population. More than 60% of hate crimes were racially aggravated.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) 'I work in the refugee sector, so I know how Glasgow is welcoming to people,' Fatma says. 'I know there are individual actions from individual people. They will not affect my thinking about Glasgow or the city because I know how welcoming Scottish people are. I've seen this myself every day.
'But I believe that there are some racist people, and we will not change them until they change themselves. We can't deny that there are some racist people here. To be honest, I'm not feeling safe all the time, but this also won't change anything."
'Migrants are your neighbour, your teacher, your nurse, your doctor, your cleaner, part of the community you live in,' says Nazek Ramadan, director of charity Migrant Voice.
She says the far-right riots which spread across the UK last summer are not isolated in signalling the hate and division which some spread against migrant and marginalised communities. But Scotland has stood apart.
'Instead of the divisive political rhetoric we have seen from some politicians, Scotland has promoted unity among communities, it has championed the rights and acceptance of people coming from other countries,' says Nazek. 'This is not to say Scotland is perfect, we still see hate on the streets, and we still see migrants fearful of going out, but Scotland's approach to inclusivity and combating division has been evidenced by a continuing decline in hate crimes, now at roughly their lowest levels for a decade.
'We still see violence against migrant and marginalised communities across the UK, most recently outside hotels in places such as Epping and in areas of Northern Ireland, causing fear among these communities.
'There is so much more which needs to be done to combat the rising spread of far-right hatred, but by promoting positivity and inclusion, by standing up for communities instead of with those spreading division, we can ensure everyone feels safe.'
Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1