Muslim woman reunited with Jewish family she defended from antisemitic abuse on London underground

Asma Shuweikh said she met with the family’s father for coffee in Manchester, where he presented her with flowers and thanked her personally for defending him and his children from the racial abuse.

"He came and gave me beautiful flowers and we sat down and had a coffee and we were talking about our experiences and our backgrounds," Shuweikh told Jewish News on Monday.

"It was very nice. It was lovely. We're going to keep in touch," she added.

Shuweikh added that she had previously been the target of Islamophobic abuse, including an incident when a motorist threw jelly beans in her face and swore at her while she was driving.

"We get these things. It's unacceptable, and I'm the kind of person that if I see that, I can't be quiet," she said of the incident.

"My faith is what drives me to do this. We always encourage to speak out against injustice," she added.

Shuweikh was tracked down on social media after a video went viral of her defending the family from a man standing above their young son reading aloud antisemitic Bible passages on the Northern Line train.

Shuweikh had to create a Twitter account to see the responses to her actions, which she described as "very overwhelming" and coming from strangers from both the Jewish and Muslim communities.

The man in question, who remains unnamed, was arrested in Birmingham on Saturday night on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence, according to media reports.