Following last night’s intimidating and provocative march by balaclava-wearing, hindutva-inspired, youth on the streets of Leicester, that has tarnished a diverse & cohesive community, MEND urges the police to initiate action with a consultative and community focused approach aimed at putting an end to these tensions.
Last night’s hindutva-inspired march is the latest in a list of provocation and harassment which the Muslim community has endured. The Muslim community has been meeting regularly with police and Leicester’s Civic Leadership to deal with the issues. The tensions have been simmering since an alleged hindutva-inspired mob attacked a young muslim 3 months ago, but dramatically erupted over 2 weeks ago, after Indian cricket “fans” celebrated a win with anti-Pakistan chanting and violence. This violence included an attack on a member of the Sikh community, who had to take refuge in a Muslim owned takeaway. These incidents were subsequently followed by another attack on a young man by 30 plus suspected hinduvata-inspired youth and this resulted in reciprocal violence. MEND calls on the police to use all necessary powers to find those responsible for both organising and carrying out this disorder...
Leicester community activist Majid Freeman outlines the timeline of the anti-Muslim violence in the city and asks how far the poisonous Hindutva ideology has spread amongst British Hindus?
The victim’s family decided to deal with it via the authorities so went to the police. After a week they were still chasing the police up to come and take a statement. The victim’s family went door to door and collected CCTV footage of the attackers themselves and handed it to the police who they felt weren’t taking it seriously.
The initial attack by the mob took place near a temple which has CCTV outside. When the temple was asked for the CCTV footage, they said the cameras weren’t working.
August 2022 – Hindus chanting “Death to Pakistan” on Melton Road after the Pakistan vs India cricket match. The mob then attacked a Sikh man and a police officer. This was all caught on camera and the police are aware of it.
There has been a rise in groups of Hindus celebrating Indian Independence Day by going outside Masajid and horning loudly etc. Hindus have been celebrating their independence day in Leicester for years, however these provocations and taunts are a recent development. The Muslim community has been extremely patient and tolerant throughout this whole ordeal.
September 2022 – Another 20-year-old Muslim youngster was attacked late at night with poles and bats after the Pakistan vs India cricket match. He was attacked just minute’s walk away from the initial attack on the other Muslim teenager in May. Both of the attacks were at a similar time and in an identical cowardly manner. Both boys were asked if they were Muslim before getting attacked by the mob with poles and bats. That same night a car went outside a nearby masjid where two men got out and urinated on the masjid walls. This has also been reported to the police.
Police inaction
You’d be forgiven for assuming that after three months and with CCTV footage of the attackers at their disposal, Leicestershire police might have made some arrests. But as of this date there have been none and the culprits are still walking the streets freely.
It’s important to mention that after the 19-year-old Muslim man was beaten with poles leaving him covered in blood and fearing he was going to die, his first request to the police was that they take him to the hospital before giving them his detailed statement. He felt his arm and hands were broken and in the state he was in he couldn’t think clearly. He was extremely shaken by the attack. As a result the police released the following statement the next morning, casting aspersions on the victim’s account: “I can confirm that the victim was identified, but at the initial stage of our attendance last night the victim did not want to help us secure evidence from them, a police officer provided initial first aid and they declined further medical attention at the time, but they are now receiving this.”
This line was subsequently repeated by police officers during their street interactions with the local Muslim community. This was an act of extreme irresponsibility on the part of Leicestershire Police and has compounded the existing trust deficit the Muslim community has in the police.
As a result, Leicester’s Muslim community – young and old alike – took to the streets in their hundreds in a display of frustration at the police’s inaction and to show their defiance of the Islamophobic thugs who were targeting them. Due to the understandable anger of the demonstrators matters escalated leading to small outbreaks of civil disturbance.
The media then picked up on the story painting it as a conflict between rival cricket fans. It was a narrative given credence by the police who repeatedly emphasised that this all started over a cricket match making no mention of the alleged religiously aggravated attack from May 2022. In all of the police statements there’s no mention of the initial attack whatsoever.
They’ve consistently promoted this false narrative of a cricketing dispute which has led to the Muslim community being painted as the aggressors. Naturally this has led to a total breakdown of trust between the Muslim community and the police.
...And there have also been numerous confirmed reports of other Muslims who have also been attacked by Hindus in Leicester in the past week. This has not helped to de-escalate the tensions in the community...
On Thursday September 8, a 17 year old Muslim teen was on his way to work at approximately 11:30am when he was stopped by two Hindus who asked him if he was Hindu or Muslim. They then grabbed him by his neck but he managed to beat them both up and escape. This incident took place at 11:30am in broad daylight.
The RSS, or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association), is a core organisation in the Hindutva (Hindu fascist) movement and network. It is widely known to be the parent organisation of India’s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, or Indian People’s Party). It is, without a doubt, a fascist organisation that uses violence to eliminate India’s religious minorities and caste oppressed people. It is Islamophobic, anti-Sikh, anti-Christian, anti-woman, and anti-Dalit.
Where is this sudden motivation to antagonise and attack Muslims in Leicester coming from? Are some of the Hindus in Leicester trying to imitate the rising violence against Muslims in India under Modi and BJP rule? In India they carry out attacks in a similar manner on Muslims and minorities by lynching them and attacking mosques etc. We’re seeing these attacks start in recent years in the UK. How far has this poisonous Hindutva ideology spread amongst Hindus in the UK?
Far-right Hindutva nationalists fuelled Leicester violence, finds new evidence
British security source argues that activists connected to Narendra Modi and the BJP are to blame for instigating and perpetuating violence in Leicester last year
AUK security source suggests there is evidence of far-right Hindu rioters conversing in closed WhatsApp groups with supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party. Such conversations are argued to have incited them into carrying out violence against Muslim youth in the English city of Leicester, last summer. [1]
While some reports suggest that the violence against Muslims was carried out after an India-Pakistan cricket match, the local community shared that tensions arose at least three months before the game.
Locals have explained that violence catapulted after a young Muslim man was senselessly attacked by Hindu youths in early May 2022. The subsequent cricket match was just another excuse for Hindutva-inspired youth to target and attack Muslims in the community. [2]
What is Hindutva?
Hindutva is a right-wing fascist ideology that drives the ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is currently in federal government and has been responsible for continued anti-Muslim sentiment for many years.
The same state-sponsored Islamophobic attacks which have been carried out in India have also been transported to the East Midlands city of Leicester. In the summer of 2022, over 200 Hindutva-supporting youth gathered in the streets in balaclavas, shouting nationalist and other provocative slogans.
Despite there being enough evidence to suggest that the violence was motivated by nationalist rhetoric perpetuated by the BJP and the paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), little effort has been made by the British government to address the growing threat of the Hindutva ideology.
Is the UK government complicit in shoving the Hindutva threat under the carpet?
The current main leaders of the cabinet, i.e. Suella Braverman (the Home Secretary) and Rishi Sunak (the Prime Minister), have a track record of choosing to focus on harmful tropes directed at Muslims.
To this end, the pair recently perpetuated racist and Islamophobic stereotypes by erroneously linking most grooming gangs with Pakistani men, despite Home Office findings from 2020 revealing that the perpetrators of most child sexual abuse gangs were White men under the age of 30. [3]
These distasteful comments come at a time when the Muslim community already feels marginalised by some of the policies pushed by government. These policies are clearly targeting and discriminating against the Muslim community.
In addition, in the wake of Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign, he vilified Islam by associating it with “extremism”. He also vowed to shift the focus from right-wing extremism to “Islamic extremism”, which he describes as the “single largest threat” to national security. [2] This is ironic, given that the British government chose to ignore the violence that was perpetuated by right-wing supremacist Hindutva groups against Muslims in Leicester.
Following the Leicester disorder, little support was given to the Muslim community. Nor was there any inkling of encouragement given to other members of the community to tackle and address the issue.
Hindutva mobs are the same groups that were involved in the Gujarat Genocide of 2002, on top of sanctioning and facilitating the daily persecution and oppression of Muslims in India. [3]
So what is government doing to tackle Hindutva ideology, whose venom is infecting Britain?
A recent report by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) belittled hostility towards Muslims in Leicester and ignored the possibility of foreign influences, despite enough evidence indicating that tensions abroad were being exported to the UK.
HJS research fellow Charlotte Littlewood commented on the new evidence via a social media post:
HSS is the UK’s RSS equivalent!
Amongst other problematic normalisations of the harmful ideology is the existence of RSS affiliate groups such as the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), which, incredibly, is a UK-registered charity that has over 100 branches. It has been established in the country for over 50 years.
The HSS charity remains open, despite a covert investigative documentary by ITV that exposed HSS leadership to be inciting violence against Muslims and nurturing its students to discriminate against Muslims. [4]
Maybe it is time that the Charity Commission investigated the impartiality (or lack thereof) of charities like the HSS and HJS, and their support of BJP and RSS sympathisers, especially since these organisations are responsible for the daily persecution and oppression of Muslims in India! [5]
Apparently, if you put a hundred red ants; and a hundred black ants together in a jar, they will live peacefully together. If the jar is shaken, the red and black ants will start killing each other, thinking the other side is responsible. The same with people, we can live happily with each other despite our differences, that is until someone shakes our jar. Then we blame the other side.
The role of the peace maker is not so much to see who is in the wrong, but rather to find ways to bring people together despite our differences. After all, it is far more beneficial for the majority to live in peace with each other, than it is to live in fear.
Faith groups should be able to promote peace.
In the spirit of searching for a greatest meaning of ‘One God’.
Eric
You will never look into the eyes of anyone who does not matter to God.
Violence is violence, no matter what the causes may be. I do believe faith communities can come together ands make a difference. I would love to see an interfaith version of Street Pastors. I have been a Volunteer Street Pastor since 2008, we wonder the streets of our town until 3 – 4am on a Saturday morning. Our role is to care, listen and to help when we can. We come into contact with many wonderful people, deeply troubled souls and violence. We are members of different churches, in partnership with the police and council.
I can remember the first big fight we came across, and we faced a dilemma. Do we obey all the risk assessments, stand back and call the police, or do we walk towards the fight and pray as we go? As we approached, I saw a man punched to the ground, another was being kicked whilst on the ground, I saw a man swing round and punch a woman in the face.
Moments later we are in the middle of all this conflict. The most we can do is stand in the middle somewhere, and try and stop the guy in front, hitting the guy behind me. I hold out my hands to my side, it’s pointless saying anything. The only person I can calm down is me, I can’t change anyone else. I can only say, by focusing only on my peace, others around me seem to absorb my peace, I seem to absorb their anger. It feels like a sponge soaking up all the aggression.
After a while, the fight stops, we stay with them, people have been hurt, they are still angry. But when it comes time to leave, they are shaking our hands and giving us a hug. I was about 60 at the time, the two remarkable ladies I was with, were both in their 70’s. I cant remember how many times we have intervened in fights. We have been in the middle of 40 plus, when brokwn bottles have been used to cut someones face open. On two occasions, we have asked someone to hand over theit knife.
We don't go out in our strength, we put all things in God's handss and go. The most amazing thing for me is, I have never been hit in fifteen years, that is beyond my understanding, we give thanks to God for all the good things that happen.
You will never look into the eyes of anyone who does not matter to God.
India’s 200 million Muslims are at the mercy of an ultra-nationalist government that looks to create an exclusively Hindu Bharat or homeland. Since the rise of the BJP government, led by Narendra Modi, Muslims have been subject to discrimination, alienation, daily religious abuse, economic marginalisation, state-sanctioned mob violence and pogroms like in Gujarat in 2002. This Hindu nationalism is underpinned by a pernicious cultural and political ideology, Hindutva, framed by an antagonism towards Islam and a rewriting of Indian history.
Our guest this week Professor Irfan Ahmad, helps us understand the precarious state of India’s Muslims and the Hindutva ideology. Born in India, he now lives in Istanbul, where he is a professor of sociology and anthropology at Ibn Haldun University. Prior to istanbul he was research professor in Germany at Max Plank institute and he has taught anthropology and politics in the Netherlands and Australia He has written numerous books and articles on India and Islam and recently published a provocative piece on Hindu Orientalism.
Ayodhya has been one of the most hotly contested arguments on the planet - in theory affecting well over a billion people. In his speech today consecrating the new Hindu temple there, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said people would talk of this in a thousand years time.
The temple is where Hindus believe the deity Ram was born - akin to Jesus for Christians. And in 1992 a Hindu mob tore down a sixteenth century Muslim mosque they claimed had been built on the ruins of the original Hindu temple. In the last thirty years alone thousands have died over this. In a nation where religion and politics were supposed to be separate - they became more intertwined than ever today.
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