After a weekend of violent clashes between Muslim and Hindu men, things seemed to have calmed down in Leicester. A total of 47 arrests have been made since the trouble started at the end of August, according to Leicestershire Police. One man has been sentenced to ten months in jail for his part in the violence. The police crackdown has, for now, appeared to have worked: on Monday and Tuesday there were no reports of disorder.
It remains to be seen whether tensions will flare up again in the city – and whether the disorder spreads to other areas. Events last night in Smethwick in the West Midlands – some 30 miles away from Leicester – suggests that might be a possibility.
Yesterday evening around 200 Muslim men converged on a Hindu temple in the Smethwick area for what had been billed online as a ‘peaceful protest against these Hindus that are attacking innocent Muslims’. In the event, many of those who turned up were wearing masks or balaclavas, bottles were thrown, and several people tried to climb on the fence surrounding the temple. Fortunately officers from West Midlands police equipped with riot gear were able to control the situation from getting too out of hand.
The protest itself appears to have been called after the Hindu nationalist Sadhvi Rithambara had been invited to speak at the Smethwick temple. Rithambara has been accused of whipping up hate against Muslims in India and was due to visit several venues in the UK this week. According to Muslim community leaders in Smethwick, last week they alerted the Hindu temple to Rithambara’s past comments and the disquiet her appearance was causing, and within hours the temple cancelled her visit. As a result, several Muslims in the area urged the protest organisers to cancel their event. Those pleas were ignored.
We don’t yet know where those gathering outside the temple yesterday are from. On Monday Leicestershire police revealed that some of those arrested in Leicester earlier this week had travelled from outside the city, including from Birmingham. Considering how close Smethwick is to the centre of Birmingham, it may be that some of the same individuals are involved in the disorder in both areas. In one video, a man wearing a balaclava said in a ‘message from Birmingham’ that supporters of the Hindu nationalist group RSS and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party are ‘not welcome in Birmingham, not welcome in Leicester, not welcome in Nottingham. Not welcome anywhere in the UK.’
What is clear is that Hindu-Muslim relations are in a dangerous position in Britain at the moment, with even the smallest incident threatening to blow up into violence or disorder. The Midlands currently feels like a tinderbox. Let’s hope that the disorder comes to an end soon.
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