Allison Pearson in the Daily Mail writes today of a fare evading burkha clad female and the tribunal decision concerning Fata Lemes, terming them ‘Burkha rage’ inducing incidents.

Burkha rage, Pearson tells us, is ‘shorthand for someone taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways’.

Pearson writes of a female who was found to be dodging her train fare but left to ‘take the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways’, when the fare inspector refused to press her further and issue a penalty on account of her appearance.

Which only begs the question whether the ‘rage’ was induced by the fact of fare evasion or the fact that the fare evader was dressed in a burkha?

Is Pearson seriously suggesting that fare evasion is practiced only by non White Britons? And would a fare evader from a White British background similarly invite ‘Burkha Rage’ from Pearson and friends for the same offence? 

Kind of like the forbearance Muslims display when travelling home late on a Friday or Saturday night and having their train journeys disrupted by boorish, foul mouthed, drunken passengers on the carriages. Perhaps Pearson could helpfully coin a phrase for this sort of repellant behaviour too?

See also Islamophobia Watch.