For the past few days, communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in UK’s Leicester have caused serious unrest, with reports of violence emerging. The tensions began in the aftermath of an Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan on August 28 and escalated in the following days.
As the tensions spread to Birmingham, another city in the Midlands region of England, an MP has asked London to intervene. MP Claudia Webbe of Leicester East, where several incidents have been reported over the past month, asked ministers to clamp down on “extremist rightwing ideology” and misinformation being spread through social media.
In this video, The Wire traces the timeline of incidents that caused the conflict. Sumedha Pal also speaks to UK-based journalist and writer Amrit Wilson about the larger political context of the tensions. She says people affiliated with the RSS have been trying to “provoke” conflict, which they want to use to whip up “further Islamophobia” in India. Watch the video for more details.
