Man stopped by counter-terror police for going up wrong escalator
Muhbeen was stopped at Holborn Station (Picture: Twitter)

A Muslim youth leader says he was racially profiled by police after being stopped while on London Underground.

Muhbeen Hussain, 25, founder of British Muslim Youth, left a train at Holborn on the Central line, but realised he had gone towards the exit rather than the Piccadilly Line.

So he turned around and went back down the escalators.

He was stopped by police who told him that he was acting suspicious.

He said: ‘He was like you went up and then down. I explained I literally took the wrong turn to the Piccadilly line and came back. I wasn’t doing rounds.

‘I was lost it’s something that happens.’

Man stopped by counter-terror police for going up wrong escalator
Muhbeen spoke about his experience on social media (Picture): Twitter

‘His colleagues soon came and explained that they needed to stop me to understand why I did it. They asked if I dropped something. They asked if I got stopped often by the police and I said only when I go to airports.’


Muhbeen said he felt the officers were racially profiling him.

He added: ‘The officer reassured me that I wasn’t being racially profiled. Because officers tend to let you know when they do racially profile you. I want to know what was making them think they had to stop me. What did I do?’

After they checked his ID, he was allowed to proceed.

Muhbeen posted about his experience on Twitter and revealed he has since had countless stories from others who have gone through similar experiences.

He added: ‘I didn’t realise how many other stories there were. I didn’t want to make it a story but I thought unless I spoke out, how could I encourage other people to speak out.

Man stopped by counter-terror police for going up wrong escalator
Muhbeen was spoken to at Holborn underground station (Piicture: Sofia Bouzidi)

Some Twitter users shared what had happened to them.

Francesca wrote: ‘I wouldn’t believe it were it not for exactly the same thing happening to my nephew and witnessed by me… he was stopped because he was ‘standing in the wrong place’. No prizes for guessing the ethnicity of nephew. #Shame on them. #againstracism #againstignorance

Tim Ryan said when he needed to change lines at Victoria Station recently, he found himself heading towards the exit where he would have to go through the barrier.

He revealed: ‘I went back down. And shouted to my friend, who was still on the parallel up escalator, to do the same.

‘I waited at the bottom. But he didn’t reappear. So I went back up to find him being questioned by two policemen. Yes, you guessed. I’m white, he’s middle Eastern. Interestingly, so were the two cops.’


A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said it was unlikely that the incident would have been recorded.

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