By Ruth Peacock
Faith community leaders from across England have spoken of anxiety and fear especially among Muslim women after the violent disorder in more than 20 cities and towns this month.
But they have also seen another side of Britain — a country where civic society rallied round and faith groups looked out for each other. And they concluded that the people involved in the violence were the minority and the vast majority of the public want a peaceful society where everyone gets on with each other.
They shared their experiences and views in a Religion Media Centre briefing that brought together participants from Creating Connections events in 11 cities, including journalists, teachers, academics, faith representatives and councillors.
Julie Siddiqi, founder of the community organisation Together We Thrive, said the past few weeks had been very difficult and heavy for all Muslims and many other people.
It had been triggering, bringing back memories of race riots in the 1970s and 1980s. The speed with which the rioters galvanised was scary. But the unrest had been building for some time following right-wing attacks against Muslims in newspapers and through words used by politicians, she said.
But the responses from what felt like the majority of the country had been very reassuring. Her organisation encouraged mosques to invite local people in after Friday prayers to have a cup of tea and conversation, and there had been beautiful moments of friendship. The terrible events had brought opportunities, she felt.
Imam Musharraf Hussain, from the Karimia Institute in Nottingham, told how within 48 hours of the riots in his city, the council, police, hospital and individuals pledged support to Muslims in the city.
He was certain that the riots arose because of Islamophobia, describing it as like an explosion after 14 years of rising Islamophobia within the Conservative government, which he accused of liaising with right-wing groups which encouraged it. He called on the new Labour government to make Islamophobia a crime.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “We should tackle anti-Muslim sentiments which are expressed in our media, in our parliament, in the cabinet in 10 Downing Street. They are illegal, wrong, criminal. When that message goes out to the rioters and extremists, then they will stop.”
Gary Newby, content editor at ITV News Central in Birmingham, explained the work journalists had done in telling the story. Kitted out with stab vests and hard hats, sometimes supported by security, they used mobile phones to film so as not to draw attention to themselves, for risk of being attacked.
But local journalists were deeply affected by reporting on riots within their own communities. “It causes some anxiety in the newsroom. We are all people and members of community ourselves, and we get worried and depressed about what seems to be happening,” he said.
His own newsroom had reported on the counter-protests, which was a positive experience, and they followed the stories through. In Tamworth, where a hotel housing asylum seekers was set on fire, the reporters found people offering support to refugees and asylum seekers days after the attack.
They were now ready to see what was next for the communities affected and what the longer-term repercussions would be.
One consequence, according to Ed Pawson, a religious education teacher and adviser, was that the riots would have a big effect on education. People feeling they were imprisoned in their homes, or questioning neighbours they previously trusted, would overflow into schools.
Schools needed to help children interpret the world they were living in, he said, and the importance of understanding diverse religious and non-religious world views was underplayed by the government.
He welcomed the suggestion that children should be taught critical thinking, calling it a slow-burn response, but a powerful tool helping children deal with bias and identify fallacies in arguments.
RE adviser Dr Kate Christopher said communities had to allow teachers to teach this. “They might need to bring information to the children that might be painful or difficult or complex or confusing. It will be all these things,” she said. “Maybe we all, as a community, need to allow ourselves to be offended from time to time.”
Teachers needed to be protected, she said. Often schools were too terrified to allow teachers to run these conversations for fear of a pile-on on social media, which meant teachers were silenced.
Manjit Kaur, who chairs the Coventry and Warwickshire standing advisory council on religious education, said there had to be action on social media, which was influencing young people. She was sure that the implementation of a new RE syllabus in her region would include a discussion about what happened in the summer holidays.
For the Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana, the essential question was what it means to be British. There had to be a way of not seeing people within society as enemies. “Is there a way in our narrative that we develop a collective notion of humanity that does not demonise certain communities against each other?” he asked.
Amrick Singh Ubhi, director of civic engagement and partnerships at the Nishkam centre in Birmingham, agreed, saying that in Sikh holy scripture, there was no enemy or stranger and all scriptures recognised all humanity as one. “We can’t fix this in one day,” he said.
No-one felt safe, not just Muslims. In the short term, clean-ups, faith collaboration initiatives and community cohesion programmes went so far. But longer-term plans were needed to protect the next generation. “How are we making sure that future generations aren’t poisoned by what we’re seeing?” e asked. “Trauma is transferred across generations.”
He welcomed action already taken by the government, with visits from the prime minister and lord chancellor to Birmingham soon after the riots.
In the election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer promised that a future Labour government would form partnership links with faith representatives.
Mr Singh Ubhi urged faith groups on the call to contact the new faith minister, Lord Khan, with their concerns and actions. He quoted from a government email sent to him last weekend: “The team is very keen to engage on a regular basis and reset the relationship between faith groups (greater, wider civil society) and the government.”
