Yumna Moosa – yumna@radioislam.co.za

21 September 2021 | 3 minute read | 17:00pm

The recent week brought about clashes between the Hindu and Muslim community in Leicester, UK seemingly after the 28th of August India-Pakistan cricket match. Shockat Adam Patel, Leicester community activist and board member of  Muslim Engagement and Development Organization (MEND) joined Radio Islam on Monday to talk more about the incidences.

The activist started by discrediting the idea that the conflict between the communities started because of the cricket match. He said :

“That certainly wasn’t the time when it started, that was the time when it came to national, local and media focus. It is categorically wrong to say that it was the time when it began, and one of the reasons for that is because India and Pakistan have been playing cricket for decades now. And the city of Leicester has a Muslim community that is mainly from India. But there certainly has been some simmering issues for a while in the last decade where smaller issues have slowly started causing an issue between the two communities.”

He says that a conflict like this has never happened at the end of a cricket match, even though there were comments that were “unsavory and anti-Pakistani”, but this has never before resulted in weeks of violence. This was just another spoke in the wheel that ignited other problems.

“Very recently we have had a new influx of a community from the west coast of India who practice the Hindu faith. This particular community has been planted in a slightly deprived social economic environment. And thereafter there  has been a lot of issues. A lot of these issues have been social such as the members drinking, littering and playing loud music- which has aggravated the community. However majority of the community has lived peacefully so far. Very recently there has been physical attacks against Muslims on the basis of their faith. On top of that, the cricket match happened which caused everything to flare up.”

As it stands, delegates (faith leaders) from the Muslim and Hindu community are in the process of meeting to discuss ways to resolve the issues. They will be looking at why these tensions are arising, and how international politics from India is inciting hatred towards the Muslim community.

Listen to the full interview on the Radio Islam International SoundCloud