LONDON: Noor Meh was a student when riots broke out in northern England in the summer of 2001, with angry South Asian British teenagers clashing with police after a series of racist attacks and incidents.
The northern town of Burnley has been rocked by riots that began an hour away in Oldham, with far-right groups fuelling racial tensions and ethnic minority communities accusing police of failing to protect them.
More than two decades later, Miah recounts those dark days as he tried to calm Muslim youth in Burnley after several Muslim graves in the local cemetery were vandalised and far-right riots broke out at a mosque in a nearby town.
“2001 was a tough time for Burnley. Since then we have moved on and risen again. There is a lot of hope for the next generation,” said Mia, who is now secretary of a local mosque.
On Monday, Miah received a text from a friend who found a family member's grave covered in paint.
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“When I rushed to the cemetery, I found a few families who were very worried and sad,” Miah said, with about seven graves marred by the gray paint.
Such acts are being treated as hate crimes by local police.
“Whoever did this is trying to provoke emotion in the Muslim community and create a backlash, but we are trying to keep everyone calm,” Meah said.
“It’s such a low thing that shouldn’t happen. No one deserves this… This kind of thing shouldn’t happen in this day and age.”
The attack has raised fears among Muslims in Burnley, after anti-immigrant and anti-Islam riots in other northern cities last week.
The violence follows a spate of stabbings on July 29 in Southport, near Liverpool, which left three children dead, with the attacker falsely blaming Muslim immigrants on social media.
Miah was concerned that his wife would go to the city centre wearing the hijab and told his father to pray at home instead of at the mosque “to limit the time he spends outside”.
“I helped build that mosque. I transported the bricks there myself. I am part of that mosque, but I also have to consider the safety of my family,” he said.
But Meah still hopes there will be no violence.
“We haven’t had any riots here yet. Hopefully there won’t be any riots in Burnley.”
In Sheffield, violence broke out near Amina Blake. Just a few miles away in Rotherham, hundreds of far-right rioters attacked police and set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers on Sunday.
While Blake, who is a community leader on the boards of two mosques in the area, said Sheffield was a “holy place”, Rotherham was “literally on our doorstep”.
Blake said there has been “a lot of fear” since the weekend riots, especially among Muslim women. “I have had Muslim sisters who wear the hijab reach out to me and say, ‘I’m worried about going out in my hijab.’”
Like Mia's family in Burnley, here “people live in their own homes”.
“I know some sisters who are normally very independent… but now they don’t go out without a male family member to drop them off and pick them up because they don’t want to go out alone in the car.”
The government has announced increased security measures at places of worship after violence that reportedly left mosque-goers in Southport trapped inside during clashes.
Although the last two major riots to hit Britain in 2001 and 2011 sparked distrust and anger towards the police by minority groups, this time the force has worked with Muslim community leaders to call for calm.
“Historically, there has been a huge amount of distrust of the police between BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities and Muslim communities,” said Blake, who is a chaplain with South Yorkshire Police in Sheffield.
“Communities have almost abandoned their historical mistrust and issues to work together (with police) to solve this real problem,”
“The support from the police and the government has been ‘amazing and, frankly, completely unexpected,’” Blake added.
As Friday prayers approach this week, Muslims in Sheffield are feeling “very anxious and vulnerable”
Blake said people are going to mosques. “There’s some fear, but there’s also a sense that we have to go on with our lives as normal,”
