A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday.
Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam.
The holidaymaker was wandering through the Mall of the Emirates when he got into an argument with Hassan Habeeb, a 21-year-old salesman from Pakistan.
During the row, Graham allegedly said that ‘Muslims in Pakistan are not normal because they kill each other and kill people outside Pakistan’.
Mr Habeeb tried to tell the Briton that Muslims are ‘peaceful people and are all brothers who help each other’.
In a written statement produced before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, the Pakistani salesman said: ‘He laughed and said that I’m crazy and that prophet Muhammad was not a peaceful man but he is a terrorist.’
Mr Habeeb then became angry and tried to punch Graham, only for a customer to intervene, it was said.
The tourist was then taken to a police station and charged with swearing in public and insulting Islam.
Yesterday Graham appeared in court wearing shorts and was ordered to change into trousers by the judge on the grounds of decency.
Once in the appropriate attire, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The court heard how the argument began after Graham had walked into E-Max electronic shop and struck up a conversation with Mr Habeeb about the Taliban on March 3.
The salesman claims the conversation became aggressive after Graham discovered he was from Pakistan.
‘I wanted to end the discussion and asked him if he need anything in the shop but he added that Pakistan would soon come to bad end,’ Mr Habeeb said.
An Egyptian customer who calmed down the salesman and a Sri Lankan colleague also gave statements supporting the claims.
In a police statement, Graham said: ‘I spoke with him about the problems between the Pakistani government and Taliban and I understood that the Pakistani is a supporter of the Taliban.
‘I told him he was crazy because they were terrorists and they kill people and bomb each other. I didn’t say anything bad about Muslims and the prophet.’
The judge released Graham on bail and will deliver his verdict on June 9.
The case once again highlights the difficulties faced by some of the one million Britons who visit Dubai each year.
Unlike some Arab states, Dubai tends to be a little more lenient towards westerners.
However, officials in the Gulf state have prosecuted several British tourists for indecent behaviour and for swearing in public over the past three years.
In 2008, Vince Acors, of Bromley, Kent, and Michelle Palmer, of Oakham, Rutland, were given three-month jail terms for having sex on Jumeirah Beach.
But the sentences, imposed for public indecency and having unmarried sex, were suspended on appeal. The pair denied having sex, claiming they had simply been ‘kissing and cuddling’.
And last year estate agent Charlotte Adams and Ayman Najafi were jailed for one month by a Dubai court for kissing and fondling each other in a restaurant - a breach of strict decency laws.
The pair, from north London, always maintained the embrace was only a ‘peck on the cheek’.
They were arrested by police in November 2009 at a busy burger restaurant after a 38-year-old local woman claimed she spotted them kissing on the lips.
She said she was offended by their behaviour in Bob’s Easy Diner at the Jumeirah Beach Residence, where she was dining with her daughter.
They were jailed for indecency and also fined £180 for being under the influence of alcohol in a public place.
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