Armed police stop man in a burqa in British city center

Thomas Dunn in a burqa

Thomas Dunn in his western clothing

DUBAI: A one-man campaign against the burqa being worn in the UK backfired when armed police stopped him after he was spotted dressing into Arab women’s clothing and entered a city center shop.
Thomas Dunn was in Exeter city center, southwest England on Sunday when he was spotted changing into a burqa in the high street and pretending to pray in a loud voice, he then entered Debenhams according to the local website DevonLive.com.
It was when the 57-year-old gas engineer left the store and took off the clothing that police stopped and searched Dunn under Section 43 of the Terrorism Act.
He said he was targeting the department store because it had started selling Muslim clothing.
Speaking to the website he later explained that this was not the first time he had dressed in a burqa as part of his campaign.
“I have always been a little intimidated by people wearing burqas and since all the terrorist attacks I think the government should ban anyone from covering their faces as on CCTV it won’t pick up who they are,” Dunn explained.
“If you see someone wearing a burqa you immediately think terrorist. It should be stopped. I have nothing against Muslim people and I’m not racist in any way, but I don’t agree with people covering their faces.”
He said that while wearing the burqa he could sense that “you really can see that the way people look at you changes. You see that initial fear in their eyes.”
And he vowed to continue in his campaign.
Dunn added: “What I’m doing is not illegal, and I’m definitely going to do it every week or I might increase it to a couple of times a week. I have told the police what I’m doing.”
The 2011 census revealed that of the nearly 130,000 people living in Exeter, there were 1,855 Muslims and 659 people of Arab origins.
Exeter is not a known hotspot for terrorism. A simple Google search reveals there has only been one recent attack in Exeter, which took place in 2008 when a man with learning difficulties tried to detonate an explosive device in a restaurant in the city center.
Nicky Reilly, 22, who was also known as Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim, was the only person hurt in the incident, but police created a large cordon as they searched for further possible devices.
Reilly was found dead in his prison cell last year.
In none of the recent attacks carried out in Britain has there been anyone wearing any form of burqa or other veil.