A 73-year-old pensioner was attacked by three men as he was walking home from a mosque in Birmingham's Kings Heath neighborhood on Wednesday night.
The victim was taken to hospital with a broken hand and cuts to his face. In the videos circulated on social media, blood is seen streaming down from the man's face.
CCTV camera footage showed the attackers were sitting in a black vehicle prior to the assault. One kicked him hard in the back, causing him to fall and hit his head on a display board. The group is then seen fleeing the scene immediately.
"This was an appalling attack on a member of the public who was heading home. We'll be taking a full statement from the victim, who remains in hospital today, and we've already got officers in the area this morning recovering CCTV and carrying out house-to-house inquiry. We are working hard to identify the attackers and the car that they were in," said Sergeant Chris Gallon of Moseley and Kings Heath police.
The attackers are described as two white men and one Black man, all aged between 18 and 30 who were wearing tracksuits.
West Midlands police do not think there is any connection to an attack on another elderly Muslim man who was set on fire while walking home from another Birmingham mosque on March 20.
Birmingham, a city with a population of 1.2 million, is home to more than 300,000 Muslims. The minority group is said to be not only facing discrimination in their daily lives, but also physical attacks.
In 2018, a cross-party group of parliamentarians issued a report on anti-Muslim hate, urging the government to officially define Islamophobia. So far, the government has refrained from taking any action.
