Women, Children, Elders ‘Living in Fear’ Amid Inter-Ethnic Violence in England

Leicester
Rui Vieira/PA Images via Getty Images
Jack Montgomery

Members of the South Asian community in the multicultural city of Leicester are “living in fear” as violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus continue, according to a local official.

Rita Patel, who chairs the race activist Operation Black Vote campaign and serves as a councillor for the leftist Labour Party in Leicester, made the admission during a public address aimed at cooling tensions in the city.

“We, as Asian women from Leicester, call upon the people of this city to rally together and oppose the senseless violence that has torn apart our community over the last week. We condemn those perpetrating hate and violence in our city: you will not succeed in dividing us,” she asserted in the address on behalf of Women of Leicester, which has been uploaded to social media.

“As your grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, and friends, we have come together in collective solidarity to say ‘no’ to the senseless violence that has plagued our great city in recent weeks and left many people injured. As a result, whole neighbourhoods and entire families, particularly women, children and elders and now living in fear,” she confessed.

 

Councillor Patel extended Women of Leicester’s thoughts “to all those injured as a result of this violence, including community workers and police officers,” adding that the “hate-filled violence threatens to tarnish our city that has been and remains a model of peace and tolerance.”

The East Midlands town has experienced weeks of convulsions, originally linked to a cricket game between India, which is predominantly Hindu, and Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim — although Islamism and Hindu nationalism have also been cited as root causes for the violence, which has now spread to other areas.

On Saturday, The Telegraph reported that Mohammed Hijab, an Islamist preacher and YouTuber whom the newspaper describes as being “involved in anti-Jewish demonstrations in London”, has been accused of “stirring up hatred” in Leicester.

Hijab posted images of himself leading a “Muslim patrol in Leicester” on Instagram, and uploaded a video of himself warning that “so-called Hindutva wannabe gangsters” had better stay off the streets, asking crowds: “Because if they do come out, are we going to be here, yes or no?”

The mob cries “Yes!” and then breaks into chants of “Allahu Akbar!” — which translates roughly to “[our] God is greater!”

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