A small mosque with green bulbs, opposite a Hindu social center installed in a former Methodist chapel, a second mosque a few tens of meters away, a third not very far. On the sidewalks, men in djellaba, women in saris or niqab, schoolchildren in uniforms. It is 4 p.m. on Friday, September 23, in Spinney Hills, a predominantly Muslim district in the east of Leicester, a large Midlands city known to be the most multicultural in the United Kingdom, with more than 30% of its population coming from the Indian subcontinent.
The previous Saturday, when all the attention in the country was centered on the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II, hundreds of young men filled the streets between Spinney Hills and Belgrave Road, another district, north of the city, predominantly Hindu. They were threatening, often masked, some were armed with knives; there were scuffles with young Muslims, the police made forty-seven arrests.
The next day, the atmosphere was still electric, the video of a saffron (Hindu) flag being lowered then burned in the district of Belgrave Road circulated widely. In this city shown as an example of British multiculturalism, this outbreak of violence surprised. The national media dated it from a cricket match having opposed, on August 28, in Dubai, India to Pakistan, which would have generated local tensions.
This Friday afternoon, Deli Fresh, the halal caterer, where all of Spinney Hills seems to be stocked with samosas, is already preparing to lower the curtain. Enter a burly young man, who has come to buy naans. ” Violence ? It has nothing to do with the cricket match! It dates from May, when Hindus came to beat me at home! They said to me: “Are you a Muslim?” And they hit me, there and there,” assures the young man, showing his neck and his legs. He does not want to say his name, just his initials, “IK”, and his age: 19 years old. “I went to the police but they did nothing,” he adds.
Provocation
“My nephew was also beaten, he was even hospitalized, but the police did not move, we only attack Muslims while Hindus are spreading an ideology of hatred, right here in the UK », adds an employee of the caterer, Mohamed Mahiel, beard and light hair, “this is what explains the tensions between our communities”, assures the man, who describes a spiral – provocations from nationalist Hindus, replies from Muslims in the neighborhood. “Some are importing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology from India [RSS] », accuse the man again. The RSS is an ultra-nationalist paramilitary organization linked to the BJP, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In recent years, violence against Muslims has escalated in India.
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