This image of Muslim woman went viral for all the wrong reasons

Photo shows hijab-clad woman walk past group of people helping victim from Westminister attack

An image of a woman walking past a Westminster attack victim has divided the internet.

The photo shows a hijab-clad woman as she walks past a group of people helping a victim from the attack, with a horrified expression on her face.

It was shared on Twitter by a user named “Texas Lone Star”.

https://twitter.com/SouthLoneStar/status/844644675415937024

It didn’t take long for the tweet to go viral - gaining over a thousand retweets and likes.



While the woman got hate from some quarters, many users rushed to emphasise that the photo was taken out of context.

Haven't we learned by now not to paint pictures based on 1 millisecond? Ridiculous.

— Lisa Rowe 🏳️‍🌈💖💜💙 (@txvoodoo) March 22, 2017

you are a complete embarrassing mess of a person. Kindly crawl back to the pond you came out of,
Stupidity embodied.

— Dr. Vicky Forster (@vickyyyf) March 22, 2017

....or she's scared, confused and in shock like all the Brits there at the time. Phoning her family to say she's safe.

— FrightFest Nick/Kidzcoolit Nick/Youth #Gottit Nick (@NickGM) March 22, 2017

....or she's scared, confused and in shock like all the Brits there at the time. Phoning her family to say she's safe.

— FrightFest Nick/Kidzcoolit Nick/Youth #Gottit Nick (@NickGM) March 22, 2017

One user, going by the handle @rashedalyyoha pointed out that the woman was being highlighted but a similar photo with white male did not raise any outrage.

The pic of that girl's got many retweets , but they didn't like to retweet that guy's pic even though he did the same thing. pic.twitter.com/7I607tviIR

— راشد Rashed (@rashedalmuheiri) March 22, 2017

Earlier this week, five people were killed and about 40 injured in London after a car ploughed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament in what police called a “marauding terrorist attack", Reuters reported.

The dead included the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, while the other three victims were among the pedestrians hit by the car as it tore along Westminster Bridge before crashing into railings just outside parliament.

The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released by its Amaq news agency on Thursday.

“The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British parliament in London is an IS soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition,” the Amaq statement said.