'Racism normalised' as Teesside Muslims question safety over riots in Hartlepool
Kris Jepson's met Muslims in Middlesbrough who are now scared to leave their own home, following riots in Hartlepool.
The Muslim community in Middlesbrough is questioning how safe they are following a night of riots in nearby Hartlepool.
Far-right protestors gathered in the town on Wednesday 31 July, with the scenes descending into violence and disorder.
One man told ITV News Tyne Tees his wife was "too scared" to leave the house this morning and another said "racism is now normalised again".
Amjid Khazir, who runs Media Cultured, an organisation promoting social cohesion and inclusion by holding anti-racism and anti-radicalisation workshops at schools, colleges, sports clubs and businesses, said it feels like a return to the "bad old days" of the 80s.
He told ITV News there has been a rise in tensions since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, adding: "The anti-Muslim, the anti-Pakistani comments that you hear, racist abuse, it almost feels like we’re back to those dark days of the 80s and 90s, where racism is now normalised again, and especially towards Muslims.
"Not just from the kind of content that we see online, but actual on-the-street racial abuse. Be that verbal or physical, it is manifesting more and more, right across the North East and especially in Teesside."
When asked how it can be dealt with, he added: "As much as there is some fantastic work taking place, it does seem to be quite tokenistic, you know, almost a tick box exercise.
"Everyone needs to do more. We need to be more sincere, we need to have those conversations, but ultimately, it’s going to be a grassroots movement that will change the situation that we find ourselves in."
Worshippers at the Jamia Masjid Al-Madina Mosque in the town were offered reassurance by the Imam, who told them to be careful when attending the Mosque. Some of the Muslim elders decided to pray at home.
Najabat Ramzan, from the Mosque, told ITV News: "People in the community are scared and afraid.
"I mean my own wife didn’t want to go to town this morning with a little kid, because she’s afraid. In Middlesbrough and Teesside we always got on well with each other.
"There’s been no issues and really, it’s a united community, but it makes me feel really sad and it makes you think, how safe are we?"
Why did it happen in Hartlepool?
With the recent murder of a pensioner by an asylum seeker in Hartlepool, the former MP claiming she wanted illegal asylum seekers "expelled”, and the rise of Reform in the general election, were these divisions just simmering?
During the disorder, social media videos were posted in which rioters chanted the name "Tommy Robinson" as they smashed down windows and doors of properties.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is currently abroad, evading an arrest warrant, but he took to social media on Wednesday night to post about events in Hartlepool.
In one post he wrote: “As disorder spreads to Hartlepool, don’t say I didn’t warn you. They sent out the message that riots work over the last few weeks.”
Robinson is the co-founder of the now defunct English Defence League (EDL), a far right Islamophobic group.
Dr Gavin Hart, Liverpool Hope University criminologist and expert in the far-right, told ITV News we have seen far-right groups like the EDL and Britain First "building over the last decade".
He added they have been "utilising misinformation, disinformation to spread their narratives very widely and groups such as UKIP and Reform have given a certain legitimacy to some of these ideas that has furthered the cause of some of the more extreme elements on the far-right."
He added: "Politicians representing the mainstream parties have also seen advantage in stoking this racial and religious tension or anti-immigrant sentiment and this has served to legitimate some of these far right narratives."
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