Following the terrorist attack in Brussels Tuesday, Matthew Doyle took to Twitter to tell his story about how he “confronted” a Muslim woman in the streets of London and asked her to explain what happened.
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The force said that a man remained in custody at a south-London police station on Wednesday night.
Doyle told the Telegraph he had no idea his tweet would be such a “hand grenade”, blaming Twitter’s character limit for making his comment sound more confrontational than it was. She said the attack had nothing to do with her, and he said that was “a mealy mouthed response”. “A mealy mouthed reply”.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed to Mashable that a 46-year-old man had been arrested at an address in Croydon on suspicion of inciting racial hatred on social media.
Doyle apparently later deleted the post, but it did not stop eagle-eyed social media users from taking screengrabs and circulating his comments.
When asked by The Huffington Post UK why he had approached the woman, Doyle explained that her Islamic headscarf justified approaching her.
Croydon was also trending on Twitter in the United Kingdom today as people rushed to mock Doyle.
At least 34 people were killed in yesterday’s terror attacks, which saw suicide bombers target Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station. I just said: ‘Excuse me, can I ask what you thought about the incident in Brussels?’
He said “I dunno, I like Batman”.
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Mr Doyle later offered an apology saying he was “in a state of shock” when he chose to confront the woman.
