London: Noor Mieh was a student when riots broke out in northern England in the summer of 2001, with angry British South Asian youths clashing with police after a series of racist attacks and incidents.
The northern city of Burnley was embroiled in riots that broke out an hour later in Oldham, as the far-right fueled racial tensions and minority communities accused the police of failing to protect them.
More than two decades later, Miah recalls that dark time when he tried to calm young Muslims in Burnley after several Muslim gravestones were vandalized in a local cemetery and far-right mosque riots in nearby towns.
2001 was a difficult time for Burnley. We have since moved on, picked ourselves up. Miah, who is now the secretary of a local mosque, said: “The next generation has a lot of hope.”
On Monday, Miah received a message from a friend who had covered a family member's grave with paint.
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“When I rushed to the cemetery, there were a couple of families who were really worried, really emotional,” said Miah, with about seven headstones defaced with gray paint.
This act is considered a hate crime by the local police.
Whoever did this is trying to provoke the Muslim community to get emotionally excited and react. But we have tried to keep everyone calm.”
“This is a very low job. “No one deserves this… Such things should not happen in this day and age.”
The attack has added to the fears of Muslims in Burnley after anti-immigrant and Islamophobic riots broke out in other northern towns and cities last week.
The violence followed a mass stabbing on July 29 in Southport, near Liverpool, in which three children were killed, which was falsely blamed on a Muslim migrant on social media.
Miah is worried about his wife going to the city center wearing a hijab and has told his father to pray at home instead of at the mosque “to limit the time he spends outside the house.”
I helped build that mosque, I physically moved the bricks there. “I was a part of that mosque, but I have to think about the safety of my family.”
But Mia still hoped that there would be no violence.
We haven't had a riot here yet. I hope the riots don't come to Burnley.”
In Sheffield, violence broke out near the home of Amina Blake. Just a few miles away in Rotherham, hundreds of far-right rioters attacked police on Sunday and set fire to a hotel where refugees were staying.
While Blake, a community leader on the board of two local mosques, says Sheffield is a “holy” place, Rotherham is “literally on our doorstep”.
Blake said there had been a “massive sense of fear” especially among Muslim women since the weekend riots. I've had Muslim sisters call me wearing hijab and say, “I'm worried about going out with hijab.”
Like Mia's family in Burnley, here, too, “people have stayed in their homes.”
“I know sisters who are normally very independent … who now won't go out without a male family member dropping them off and picking them up because they don't want to be in the car alone.”
The government has announced increased security for places of worship in the wake of the violence, which reportedly left mosque-goers in Southport locked inside during clashes.
While the two most recent major attacks that rocked England in 2001 and 2011 were accompanied by a wave of minority distrust and anger against the police, this time the police force has worked alongside Muslim community leaders to create calm.
Blake, who is also chaplain for South Yorkshire Police in Sheffield, said: “Historically, there has been a lot of mistrust of the police between BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) communities, Muslim communities.
“Communities have almost put aside mistrust and historical issues to come together (with the police) to deal with this very, very real problem.”
The support from the police and the government has been “really amazing, and to be honest, completely unexpected,” Blake added.
Muslims in Sheffield were feeling “very nervous and vulnerable” as Friday prayers began this week.
But people will go to mosques, Blake said. “There is fear, but there is also a feeling that we should carry on as normal.”
