Self defence?

I went to Postgraduate Induction programme for Bart's and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry yesterday and was given a Pepper Spray as door gift! The security and school management keep on reminding us of the importance of self defence..

the spray is specially made and given to the students.

For Londoners, East London is the so-called black area with high crime rate- they said it is due to to high population of Blacks/Pakistani/Indians/Arabs in the area.. just wonder,is this one of the way to degrade the image of Muslims in London??prejudice maybe? (as most of the population are Muslims..) Wallahua'lam..