SW1 Bitesize: the Leicester Riots 2022
Why are the authorities so reticent about who is responsible?
Yesterday, the police responded to “serious disorder” in Leicester by using Section 60 powers to disperse or stop and search “large crowds” after an “unplanned protest”.
BBC News reported that, “large numbers of people became involved in disorder in parts of East Leicester”. They described those involved as “ hundreds of people, mainly men”. No motive was explained but the BBC revealed that it “is the latest in a series of disturbances to have broken out following an India and Pakistan cricket match on 28 August”. Community leaders were helping the police call for calm. The police also reported that there was footage of “a man pulling down a flag outside a religious building on Melton Road”. But which communities and which religion?
An earlier BBC story stated that 27 people had been arrested previous for another “series of disturbances” which were also linked to the cricket match. They quoted the temporary Chief Constable thanking the community for calling for calm, although again, nobody says which community.
Leicester East’s disgraced MP Claudia Webbe meanwhile took time out from praising anti-colonial leaders to call on “communities” to “share the message of tolerance” and stop the “hate-filled clashes”. She added that, Leicester “is a shining example of how people from different cultures can live together side by side. Our diversity is what makes Leicester special. We are the city where the minorities make up the majority. And we are richer for this vibrant exchange of cultures”. But in order to maintain that vibrancy, she called on people to combat “hatred and division in all its forms”.
Oddly, she failed to mention who was spreading this hatred and division, although she did criticise “far right elements” who are “using social media and other online communication to incite religious and racial hatred”. Fortunately in a letter to the temporary Chief Constable she does reveal that there are reports of incitement to hate “being targeted at those of Muslim or Hindu faith” and that social media posts were circulating calling for a protest “against Muslim hate crime”, which she claims must be “fake” and designed to “entrap” members of the local community into attending a “protest sparked by hate”.
All of this coyness seems very strange when anyone capable of going on Twitter and searching “Leicester Muslim” or “Leicester Hindu” will quickly find a wide range of videos which quickly make it apparent that this was a sectarian riot between those two groups.
Using those videos, the timeline becomes clearer:
Events began with a Hindu protest crowd, who were filmed walking down the road chanting sectarian slogans. In some footage they are clearly chanting “Jai Shree Ram”. Although it can be used as a greeting, in recent years it has been used by Hindu lynch mobs in India. There were claims some of the Hindus may have travelled from London to join the protest, although it’s unconfirmed.
In response to this, Muslim protestors quickly gathered and mobs formed to attack the Hindus. They managed to trap the Hindu protestors in a small area, with lines of police protecting them and keeping the mobs apart. On videos, Muslims can be heard blaming a minority of Hindu extremists, who they say hate Muslims.
As night descended and the two mobs remained kept apart by large amounts of police, more and more young men arrived to join. Groups of Muslims were said to be arriving from all over the West Midlands, whilst voices within the mob called for more reinforcements. Footage shows Muslim men chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Takbir”, phrases often although not exclusively associated with jihadists.
Things were thrown at the police. At least one person was badly beaten. And a Muslim climbed onto a Hindu temple and threw down their flag.
Away from the main area of disorder, groups of young men patrolled the streets and smashed up cars or rolled them over. Some cars were abandoned in the middle of the street by drivers.
All of this evidence is easy to find if you have an internet connection. There is no way that a competent journalist can be unaware of who is responsible and what the rioting is about. Claudia Webbe’s blaming of the far right suggests one possibility: that this is being deliberately censored so as not to allow right-wingers to present these events as a negative effect of multiculturalism. It’s also possible that journalists worry about further inflaming community tensions; but that shouldn’t excuse failing to report the basic facts. To avoid such sectarian riots in future, honesty is a necessity.
Note: the original BBC article has now been updated, after criticism, and now identifies the groups who are responsible. The original version of the story can be read here.