Community leaders from both the Hindu and Muslim faiths united together earlier this week to call for unity and calm following a series of incidents between a group of Hindutva supporters and Muslims.
Majid Freeman, a community activist from Leicester told that a group of Hindu men were marching down Green Lane Road near several Muslim-owned businesses which is also close to the Hindu Temple. “They were smashing glass bottles and taunting the Muslim community and physically beating up people.”
Several of the men recorded who were marching down Green Lane were chanting “Jai Shree Ram” a traditional Hindu chant which has been misused by perpetrators of anti-Muslim violence in India.
Majid describes how tensions had been brewing for months since May 2022 when a Muslim teenager was attacked. This incident was reported to Leicestershire Police and CCTV had been provided to the police by the family of the victims showing the attackers.
“A Muslim teen was beaten by 30+ Hindus who used bats and poles to attack him. He was then hospitalised. 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. This is how things initially started.”
Following the first attack in May another attack on a Muslim teenager occurred this month. However, prior to this Majid says that “Muslims and Hindus have been living in peace in Leicester for decades.”
Majid filmed the latest unrest that broke out on Green Lane in a he released on social media, which showed the disorder on the streets, but says that the lack of action by the police in the initial months ahead of this had “led the Muslim community to come out and defend themselves.”
Forty-seven were made by Leicestershire police following the disorder in Leicester and information that people from Birmingham had also been arrested after coming to take part in the unrest.
The police also people to counter misinformation that was fuelling tensions further on social media and called on people to only share information they knew to be true.
In addition, a flag from the Hindu Temple on Melton Road in Leicester was pulled down by a Muslim youth in a circulated on social media.
“There are frustrations within the Hindu community as well as the Muslim community because both communities are fearful that this is getting out of control and I know that we all want to live peacefully with one another as we have been for years,” Divya Patel, from Leicester, told .
“The people coming down to Leicester and causing this disruption are thugs, they are not following the teachings of Hinduism by attacking or intimidating anyone and we as a community will not let them divide us," she added.
A similar sentiment was shared by Ayesha Khan, who told , "We do not condone the acts of the individuals who have taken down the temple’s flag and who are responsible for the vandalism. That is not Islam, they do not represent us. We as a community will call for a united stance."
The rise in unrest that has seeped into the UK is believed to stem from the influence of imported Hindutva ideologies which support right-wing extremism in India and has been perpetuated under the governance of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vasundhara Sirnate, a journalist for The Hindu said on: “We recognize that Hindutva is an ideology of Hindu upper caste, predominantly male supremacy. And we do not want it to poison India or any other country.”
Community leaders from both the Jamea Masjid and ISCKON Hindu temple in Leicester have both called for calm amidst the unrest and have urged the community to stand together as one.
Pradyumna Pradipgajjar, of the city's Iskcon Hindu temple, read out a joint statement with Muslim faith leaders from Jame Masjid Leicester:
The statement continued: "That is why we are saddened and heartbroken to see the eruption of tension and violence. Physical attacks on innocent individuals and unwarranted damage to property are not part of a decent society and, indeed, not part of our faiths. What we have seen is not what we're about. We together call upon the immediate cessation of provocation and violence – both in thought and behaviour. We together call upon the inciters of hatred to leave our city alone."
On Thursday, the city’s mayor said that the clashes are to be the subject of an independent review.
Sir Peter Soulsby said the review, which should be completed within weeks, will examine whether extremist groups and outside organisations encouraged the disturbances on Saturday and Sunday.
“We need to have an understanding of what happened, why it happened and whether it was motivated by extreme ideologies imported from elsewhere. We need to find out what we can do to intervene to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future,” Soulsby said.
Relations between Hindus and Muslims in India have worsened during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's time in office, and the effect of this has been felt elsewhere.
Modi's (BJP) is Hindu nationalist – a philosophy criticised as exclusionary towards Muslims and other minority groups.
Tasnim Nazeer is an award-winning journalist, author, and Universal Peace Federation Ambassador. She has written for Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Middle East Eye, CNN, BBC, and others. She was awarded the FIPP the global network of media Rising Stars in Media Award 2018.
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