Category Archives: UK

Labour MP sparks race row after attacking Asian drug violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A race row broke out today after Labour MP Ann Cryer accused young Asians of drug dealing and terrorising communities.

The MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire said Asian ‘ghettos’ were rife with drug dealing that was destroying both the Asian community and race relations with whites. Her constituency is a few miles from Bradford, which was hit by the worst race riots for a decade last summer.

Her comments were described as ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ by Shahid Malik, a member of Labour’s National Executive and a former member of the Commission for Racial Equality. He said Cryer should consider resigning: “Her comments are offensive and damaging to race relations.”

Observer, 7 July 2002

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Race Row as MP Warns of ‘Asian Ghettos Rife With Drug Dealing’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Race Row as MP Warns of ‘Asian Ghettos Rife With Drug Dealing’

By Pat Hurst and Alistair Keely

Press Association, 6 July 2002

A race row broke out today after a Labour MP accused young Asians of drug dealing and terrorising communities.

Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire, said Asian “ghettos” were rife with drug dealing and it was destroying both the Asian community and race relations with whites. But her comments were “dangerous and irresponsible”, according to one Asian leader, who said she should consider resigning over the remarks because they were “damaging to race relations”.

Mrs Cryer’s constituency is a few miles from Bradford, which was ravaged by the worst race riots for a decade last summer. She cited drug links between Pakistan and Asians living in Britain as one of factors feeding crime. She said: “In a period of six months there have been four killings of young Asian men, by young Asian men. It is all drug and gang related, all about who is selling drugs in which territory.”

The MP said young Asians did not have “professionals” to look up to because of “Asian flight” – once they become successful they leave the neighbourhood. Instead, youngsters in the Asian community saw drug dealers in big cars and smart suits as role models.

She claimed honest Asians were too frightened and intimidated to ask the police for help.

Answering the MP’s comments, Shahid Malik, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee and a former member of the Commission for Racial Equality, said Mrs Cryer should consider resigning.

Mr Malik, from Burnley, described Mrs Cryer as a “constant menace” and her latest outburst “irresponsible and profoundly counter-productive”.

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Men charged after racist attack

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Two men have been charged with racially aggravated assault and violent disorder following an attack on a Muslim man outside a mosque in west Wales.

The 30-year-old victim was punched, spat at and hit by a bottle in the attack at the Station Road Mosque in Llanelli on Sunday evening.

The two men charged appeared at Llanelli magistrates court on Thursday and were released on bail.

Eleven other people arrested and questioned by Dyfed-Powys Police in connection with the incident were released on bail pending further inquiries.

Detectives said men aged between 20 and 25 had hurled racist abuse as worshippers arrived for a gathering on Sunday evening.

A Muslim cleric, 60, who was inside the building, later died from a heart attack.

The worshippers and a group of clerics were reportedly abused as they arrived for the Islamic “family celebration” meeting inside the mosque.

One reportedly tried to pull a headscarf from a senior cleric outside the building on Station Road at around 1730 BST.

BBC News, 6 June 2002

Call this monster by its name

Posted on by Eddie Truman

The history of contemporary European Islamophobia starts with the fall of the iron curtain and the appearance of a new challenger to western capitalist hegemony. In a still self-consciously Christian Europe, this ideological competition has been grafted on to the legacies of the Crusades and Ottoman-Christian rivalries, and the perceived demographic and cultural threat posed by a growing Muslim population.

Intoxicated by this poisonous brew, Austrians swept Jörg Haider’s Freedom party into power in 1999. The party had campaigned on an anti-Muslim platform, drafting a political catch-all for its hate politics, Uberfremdung (“foreigner-swamping”) into the electoral vocabulary. But despite symbolic sanctions, no EU state took concrete steps to combat Islamophobia.

Faisal Bodi in the Guardian, 14 May 2002

Islamophobia ‘explosion’ in UK

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Muslim groups have agreed with a report by the EU race watchdog that anti-Islamic feeling has “detonated” in the UK since 11 September.

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) said there had been a big rise in attacks – including physical assaults – on Muslims in Britain since the US terror attacks.

It monitored a period from 11 September until the end of December last year, and found numerous reports of attacks on Muslim people and institutions such as mosques.

They included women and children being harassed in the street, and one taxi-driver who was paralysed from the neck down in an attack in which 11 September was mentioned.

Muslim groups said anti-Islamic feeling was still running high in the UK even now – more than eight months after the attacks thought to have been masterminded by Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.

BBC News, 24 May 2002 report

Mosque attacks ‘going unreported’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Muslims are not reporting attacks on mosques because they fear that to do so could raise racial tension.

Imran Rizvi, the chief spokesman on race for Manchester City Council’s ruling Labour group, said mosques had been attacked and congregations had received telephone threats. In Greater Manchester there had been “at least half a dozen attacks” on mosques and Islamic centres since Tuesday of last week.

Three incidents have been officially reported to police – two of them in Manchester, the other in Bolton where a mosque was firebombed. No one has been injured. Mr Rizvi’s remarks indicate that attacks in other towns and cities are also going unreported.

“We are not giving details because that will create tension,” said the councillor. “But there have been at least half a dozen attacks in Greater Manchester. These have included telephone threats along the lines of ‘We are going to burn you down’. There have also been other threats, intimidation and graffiti.”

Mr Rizvi, who was speaking as the city council hosted a private meeting of civic, religious and community leaders, said he believed that threats had been issued by “a small handful of idiots” who may or may not be members of racist organisations.

“There is that level of fear. You have only to look at what is happening in Bradford, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, where a taxi driver has been paralysed. Issues like that are very frightening. We want people to be vigilant and to contact the police. We will not tolerate this behaviour.”

Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2001

Muslim leaders probe reported attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim leaders in Swansea are investigating a claim that a woman ripped a headscarf from a Muslim schoolgirl amid claims that a mosque in the city has been stoned and death threats received.

Political and religious leaders in Wales have issued calls for restraint amid concerns that Muslims could become targets for racial attacks following the terrorist attacks in the US.

South Wales Police have refused to confirm or deny that the incidents have been reported to them. However, on Tuesday the force issued a statement which said it is recording an increase in the number of racial attacks.

Omar Williams, who runs a social welfare group in Swansea, said he was investigating claims Muslim pupils in the city have been abused. It is alleged an adult tore off a Muslim girl’s headscarf in one incident and Kayfer has referred the incident to the police.

Muslims have also received malicious telephone calls and windows and mosques have been vandalised.

BBC News, 19 September 2001