“All sons of Adam are sinners, but the best sinners are those who repent often,” says a sign in the main hall of London’s King’s Cross train station, as several train customers noticed. Some photograph the tradition attributed to the Prophet Mohammed on the board and post it to X (formerly Twitter). Shortly afterwards, many mixed reactions followed and the railway quickly canceled the message.
The company responsible, Network Rail, told the BBC that the message should not have been displayed on the main train departure board. They are investigating why “general Ramadan celebration messages” were not used instead. A Network Rail spokesperson added to the BBC: “We celebrate all major religious festivals from Christmas to Ramadan at King’s Cross to reflect our diverse passenger and staff base.”
However, it remained unclear why Ramadan was mentioned at all and why the information board, which is actually intended for information about train departures, was used. The spokesman added: “Our main departure board should be reserved for train information […] Everything has now been corrected.”
The majority of the surprised and rather negative reactions to the postings are mainly bothered by the religious content. “Islam is taking over” or “This is what reverse colonization looks like” are comments of the more harmless variety.
However, on the other hand, there are also comments that can find positive things about the – short-term – campaign: “If you consider that […] millions of Muslims live in this country, I don’t really understand what could be wrong with that,” writes, for example User “northernfox1972” and is supported by a few other commenters who find the campaign “sensational” or “great and very inclusive”.
Sources: BBC, X
