Thread by @sunny_hundal

Ok, I've been watching the violence and mayhem unfold in Leicester with alarm, as it's bad and could escalate further.

I’ve been warning about such rising tension - imported from South Asia - for years, and police need to get a grip.

Thread on events & thoughts👇🏽

First, this is not a definitive series of events but my rough timeline of how things escalated.

This all kicked off on 28 August after a India-Pakistan cricket match, when India fans converged on Leicester to shout "Pakistan Murdabad" (Death to Pakistan).

One (apparently Sikh) man was attacked and Muslims say they heard anti-Muslim slogans too (wouldn't be surprising).

A lot of Hindutva (India's Hindu nationalists) groups claimed this it was blown out of proportion, especially to me when I tweeted it. (Those mfers are quiet now)

A few days later, Hindus started circulating videos on WhatsApp of gangs of men attacking property and people in majority-Hindu areas.

In this video, a man pulls off a religious flag from a Hindu home. Another has a knife.

So the message started spreading around on British Hindu WhatsApp that Muslims gangs were targeting Hindu households in Leicester and attacking their religious symbols.

Hindus started saying they needed to mobilise to protect Hindu households, and started going there on weekends

That attracts the attention of Muslim 'activists' who want to become social media stars through their work.

They turn up on streets to film large-scale disturbances of Hindutva groups, to get Muslims to mobilise behind them.

Msgs urging Muslims start spreading on social media

Here's a video of Hindus chanting "Jai Shree Ram" (praise Lord Ram) and carrying weapons while on the streets of Leicester

Then groups of Muslims are seen creating trouble at Leicester at night, including one video where a (presumably Muslim) man tears down a Hindu religious flag outside a religious organisation.

There's also a video going around of a Muslim man burning that Hindu flag. I can't verify this video for sure but it has been circulated around.

This further inflamed Hindus in the UK and in India - where the right-wing media has gone into overdrive.

What I'm showing you here are gangs of men, looking to create trouble and have fights in the name of protecting their religious community.

Both sides have turned a political rivalry into a religious conflict through their chants and attacks on religious symbols.

Here's another 'activist' Mohammed Hijab, searching for clout, telling his audience of masked men:

"If they (Hindus) believe in reincarnation, what a humiliation of them to be reincarnated into some pathetic, weak, cowardly people like that."

This sort of language is racist too

So we get to this weekend, and things boil to a point where there are rumours among Hindus and Muslims that their temples and mosques are being attacked.

The mobs get larger too. Here's a video of what looks like over a hundred Hindus in Leicester

This is now become an international story, with Indian news channels claiming that Muslims have been attacking Hindus enmasse.

The Indian government has called on the UK government to take action.

https://twitter.com/HCI_London/status/1571805409060462593

Leicester police have made a series of arrests that suggest there's been lots of incidents over the last few weeks, and this could escalate further.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

A FEW THOUGHTS

1) Rising Hindu nationalism in India (fuelled by BJP gov't) has led to attacks on Muslims, Christians and Sikhs there, fuelling tensions in UK too.

I have warned about this for years. In this 2019 Home Office report (pg 18 onwards)
gov.uk/government/pub…

2) The UK is now the cultural capital of the world (possibly second to the US, but we can disagree), therefore events abroad will have an impact here too.

You get the good (great food, hardworking immigrants) and you get the bad (cultural baggage!) That's the way it works.

The above is my response to racists jumping on this to claim Britain is being destroyed by ethnic tension. Do fuck off.

The vast, vast majority of British Hindus and Muslims are peaceful and don't want trouble. These are gangs looking for attention, a story as old as society.

3) Both Hindus and Muslim groups are trying to exploit these tensions for support.

If you're organising gangs of men to "patrol the streets to defend our community" instead of letting the police do their job - you're part of the problem not the solution.

4) If Muslim religious flags / symbols had been desecrated openly by Hindus then I think we would have seen an international social media uproar too.

This has angered Hindus and needs to be addressed. (I don't support violence in response to 'blasphemy' BTW)

5) This has primarily been fulled by people from outside Leicester looking for trouble.

Leicester police need to immediately address this, and promise far harsher sentences for outsiders.

Here are Hizb ut Tahrir (who can fuck right off) inviting people

6) This was sparked by Hindutva nationalists (from Britain, perhaps from India) but has now been escalated by Muslims too.

This is me simply saying what I'm seeing. I've been reporting on such bullshit for decades to know everyone claims to just be "defending the community"

7) In 2021, some UK Labour MPs warned that religious tension from India was spreading to the UK.

Since this applies to every country, it implied that Hindutva extremists are becoming a problem in the UK too.

barficulture.tv/world/946

8) QUESTIONS:

- Why were Leicester Police caught unprepared and have been unable to defuse tensions?

- Why have local religious leaders not stopped gangs of youths from their community walking around and making things worse?

- Have other local police forces helped Leicester?

It also looks like local police forces don't have much of an action plan when dealing with such religious tensions, especially when they can quickly escalate through social media.

This is deeply worrying too.

I should also add:

One reason why I don't trust many "religious community leaders" is because they'd much rather sit on the sidelines than stop such escalation.

Many British Hindu groups (NCHT, HFB) for example, have been very aligned with BJP's agenda
barficulture.tv/politics/70

ALSO

I know there are many related issues, but I'm writing a thread not a long article (no time, sorry).

I have a long record of criticising Hindutva and Islamists. Anyone who says there's just one victim here is misleading.

I've seen more videos but main points remain.

Some have asked how INDIAN MEDIA plays a part.

Here's a clip from India Today, where an 'eyewitness' claims Hindus are also being targeted across Midlands (proof?) and media reporting is very "anti-Hindu" (lol)

This has been completely distorted in India

My article for the @NewStatesman today on the tensions in Leicester.

"This is another example of how rising Hindu nationalism in India, which has frequently been directed against religious minorities, is exporting tensions abroad"
(free to read)

newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022…