Ex-cricketer and racism whistleblower Azeem Rafiq says Manchester Airport footage ‘triggering’

LONDON: Former cricketer and racism whistleblower Azeem Rafik has said the footage of a Manchester Airport policeman stamping on an Asian man’s head was “incredibly triggering” and accused the police of “brutality.”
“I found the footage incredibly triggering; not just me, but the whole community and the rest of my family. It’s infuriating because that resonates, plus the way you get treated in airports generally, as a Muslim, since 9/11,” Rafiq told The Independent on Friday.
Video scenes surfaced on Tuesday showing a Greater Manchester Police officer kicking and stamping on the head of 19-year-old Mohammed Fahir, who was lying face down on the floor, with a woman believed to be his mother kneeling beside him.
Former cricket star, Rafiq, who is from Pakistan, said: “The man could have died and looking at his mother in the clip reminded me of my own.”
The ex-Yorkshire player spoke out in 2020 about the racism he suffered as a cricketer and his testimony to a select committee in 2021 led to a major overhaul in the county’s leadership.
“I have had dealings with the police around some of the death threats and attacks that were happening at my house and the lack of interest in protecting me and my family effectively, which is why I left the country.
“When that gentleman is on the floor defenseless, no context excuses that level of police brutality. Yet, you still have a lot of people defending that stuff, which is the scary bit,” said Rafiq, who now lives in Dubai.
The white officer was also shown in the video striking a second man, believed to be Fahir’s brother.
In a media brief at Rochdale police station on Thursday, the family’s lawyer Akhmed Yakoob revealed that the man who was stomped on has a brain cyst and had undergone a CT scan following his head injuries. Mohammed was “fighting for his life,” and Fahir’s brother and 56-year-old mother were also assaulted at the airport, according to Yakoob.
Rochdale’s Labour MP Paul Waugh has reportedly met the family and said that they have appealed for “calm in all the communities.”
Their elder brother, a serving officer with Greater Manchester Police, the lawyer said, was “too afraid” to go to work.
Rafiq told the publication that he was not optimistic that improvements would be made to policing following the incident and protests.
“We’ve seen these sorts of videos before, and it doesn’t seem to matter. The change doesn’t seem to get anywhere closer to change.”
Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice came under fire for describing the alarming footage as “reassuring.”
Referring to the remarks as “sickening,” Rafiq said: “We’ve had members of parliament yesterday not only justifying it but actually advocating for that type of police response.
“As a person of color, and given the current dynamics around Muslims in this country, it’s a pretty scary place to be.”
Campaigners have expressed concern that the officer’s assault was racially motivated and steeped in Islamophobia, which has increased across England and Wales in recent months.
Rafiq called for support for the family, adding that the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s probe should happen “quickly and independently.”