An odd article, no where is Hizb Ut Tarir mentioned
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how- ... -sljw8zjht
https://ukdaily.news/leicester/how-the- ... 11330.html
How the far right fanned the flames in Leicester
An unsavoury alliance is being formed by Hindu and white British nationalists, reports Laith Al-Khalaf
Tommy Robinson is supporting Hindus in Leicester
Laith Al-Khalaf
Sunday October 02 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Tommy Robinson may not be the first person you’d expect to find defending the Hindu community. The far-right agitator’s first foray into politics was in 2004, when he joined the British National Party, which at the time did not allow people from ethnic minorities to be members and only dropped its commitment to forced repatriation of immigrants five years earlier.
Yet earlier this month, while out on a countryside dog walk, an out-of-breath Robinson, 39, recorded a shaky video blog from his smartphone, launching a passionate defence of British Hindus.
“We have all grown up with Hindus. We know who they are, we know how peaceful they are,” said Robinson, in the video, which was posted on YouTube on September 21.
Muslim protestors outside the Durga Bhawan Hindu Centre
Robinson said he was looking to rally football fans to travel to Leicester to protect Hindus from an “onslaught from Pakistani Muslims” following clashes in the city between the two groups earlier this month triggered by a cricket game between Pakistan and India.
“It’s the Pakistani Muslims coming in from Birmingham, it’s the Pakistani Muslims travelling from different cities to attack Indian Hindus, to terrorise them in their homes and to target their women,” said Robinson. Three days earlier, on Gettr, a social media platform frequented by many on the far right, Robinson said he had contacted members of the Hindu community, offering support and protection from men across the UK.
Last month, police received reports of violence perpetrated by both Muslims and Hindus in Leicester. On September 17, about 300 masked Hindu youths marched through Green Lane Road, where there are multiple Muslim-owned businesses. Three days later, a group of more than 200 Muslims gathered outside a Hindu temple in Smethwick, where one man was arrested for carrying a knife. A total of 47 people were arrested, with nine so far charged. Amid the conflict, the British far right seems to have found an opportunity to exacerbate tensions between the two communities.
“Robinson comes from a part of the far right that sees Islam as its main priority. They are very happy to take the side of Hindu extremists,” says Nick Lowles, founder of Hope Not Hate, an anti-extremist think tank. “The plans to bring football mobs . . . into Leicester and defend places of worship is clearly incendiary and provocative — it’s designed for conflict against the Muslim community.”
Paul Golding founded the far right group Britain First, which focuses on an anti-Islamic message framed as patriotism
While it is unclear whether any football fans did in the end travel to Leicester, Lowles says the request endangered Hindus. “It plays into the hands of extremists in the Muslim community,” he says. “It confirms to them the Islamophobic nature of what is happening.”
Since the election of India’s Hindu nationalist prezsident Narendra Modi in 2014, tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India have grown significantly, resulting in many violent clashes. That violence appears to have spread to the diaspora, including in the UK, with the far right only too happy to exploit the historical conflicts between the communities.
Over the past five years, Robinson, born Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and from Luton, has been forming alliances with anti-Islam activists in India. In 2018, he interviewed the Hindu nationalist activist Tapan Ghosh, who once said it should be the United Nations’ responsibility to limit the birth rate of Muslims. The pair agreed that Islamist extremism represents “true Islam”.
Robinson was also due to be interviewed by Nupur Sharma, a Delhi-based activist and editor of the website Opindia.
Mayor blames Leicester unrest on social media disinformation
During the Leicester violence, Sharma tweeted to her half a million followers that she would be interviewing Robinson to “call out blatant Islamic violence in Leicester”. “Hindus need allies, and we don’t have the luxury of perfection when Hinduphobia is so mainstream,” she said.
The interview was postponed after British Hindus contacted Sharma to warn that the interview could inflame tensions.
“It might seem like a strange alliance but it is strategic — they both share a common enemy . . . Islam,” says Christophe Jaffrelot, professor of Indian politics at King’s College London. “Both movements share a lot of sincere similarities — they can be authoritarian and illiberal.” According to Jaffrelot, since the 1930s Hindu nationalists have admired nationalist experiments in Europe. Recently, both Hindu and European nationalists have adopted the belief that Islam is attempting to conquer their respective nations.
Others on the far right have seen the interfaith conflict as a key recruitment tool. Ashlea Simon is the chairwoman of Britain First, an anti-Islamic group founded in 2011 whose “Christian patrols” invaded British mosques. “These things are kind of a blessing,” she said in a video on Gab, another platform used by the far right. “It’s kind of good that white people and the supposed far right aren’t involved at all because this is one ethnic community against another . . . Ordinary people, sat on Twitter, are seeing this and that’s a good thing for nationalist politics, that’s a great thing for teaching people about the importance of demographics.”
Ashlea Simon spoke of the unrest as being an excellent recruitment tool for groups like Britain First
“There is this feigned outrage about what is going on,” says Lowles. “But really they are rubbing their hands with glee . . . and from their perspective they hope that this will help wake people up to the ‘horrors of multiculturalism’. It’s good business because they hope it will scare white people into their ranks.”
Both Simon and Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, claim the example of Leicester shows the uniquely violent nature of Islam. “You can see who the aggressors are here and it’s not the Hindu community,” said Simon. Like Robinson, Golding took to Twitter to threaten Leicestershire police, whom he refers to as the “local Gestapo” and believes to be on the side of Islamist extremists. He said he would bring a “battle bus” of supporters to protect white communities. In November last year, Britain First drove buses through Leicester with the phrase “putting British people first” splashed across the front.
Others on the far right seem to be using envy as a rallying cry. Mark Collett, the founder of Patriotic Alternative, complained that the white community did not have similar mobs of youths willing to protect their racial interests. “Both of those groups can put what looks like a small army of young men of fighting age on the street. I don’t think there is any white community out there that could put that sort of force on the streets,” he said in one video.
There are fears that with the Hindu festival of Diwali approaching, clashes could return to Leicester’s streets. “Extremist groups will use this to show that the danger is on our doorstep,” says Lowles. “They are definitely trying to exploit this because trouble is good news for them.”