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Author: Rashmee Roshan Lall
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 24, 2005
Brown-on-black race rioting has flared in Asian-dominant Birmingham, Britain's second city and the supposed showpiece of 21st century European multi-cultural harmony.
Saturday's rioting, which left one black man dead, and at least 20 others, including a police officer injured, erupted after the Jamaican community in ethnically diverse Birmingham accused Asian youths, thought to be of Pakistani origin, of raping a 14-year-old black girl.
The violence, believed to have been perpetrated by rival gangs of hundreds of Asian and black youths, left several-mainly Pakistani-run-kebab shops, grocers and newsagents vandalised.
Eyewitnesses said dozens of youths smashed property and attacked police. Bricks and bottles were thrown and the viciousness was such that even an ambulance was attacked by a gang wielding sticks. The rioting occurred in Birmingham's Lozells area, a multicultural part of the city where substantial numbers of Asians and blacks, mainly of Jamaican descent, live cheek by jowl. Lozells, a poor area, has gone down in history as the home of the bloody Handsworth riots of September 1985, which saw two days of violent unrest following the arrest of a black man by police.
Birmingham, which won the prestigious European City of the Future award just a fortnight ago in a nod to its unique and vibrant multi-cultural mix, counts nearly 30% of its population as non-white, of which 20 % is Asian. Blacks account for just 6 % of the population.
According to the last census in 2001, nearly 56,000 Indians live in Birmingham, Pakistanis make up twice the number and the city has nearly 21,000 Bangladeshis. Commentators said the violence appeared to sound the alert on Birmingham's proud propaganda of itself as an oasis of multi-cultural calm and harmony.
Locals said the violence, which resulted in a police helicopter ominously hovering above the area with its searchlight trained on the troubled area, erupted after a week of rising tension between blacks and Asians. The tensions, previously known to exist between black and Asian gangs over drugs and gun crime, centred this time on the alleged, assault on the Jamaican teenager Though police said no offence has been reported and there appeared to be no evidence to support rumours of the alleged attack, Birmingham's black community is understood to be deeply hostile to what some describe as "swaggering Pakis". The girl, who has gone underground, is thought to be an illegal immigrant. On Sunday, Khalid Mahmood, a local MP of Pakistani origin, joined city police to appeal for calm. Mahmood said vehicles, including a cab, had been set ablaze by the mob.
Meanwhile, black leaders, including Bishop Joe Aldred from the Council of Black Led-Churches, said the Afro-Caribbean violence was deplorable, but seemed to reflect underlying community tensions. "At the root of it are primarily young people, but not just young people from the African and Caribbean community Their anger seemed to be directed in the first place at elements of the Asian community because they feel that it's Asian men who are the butt of the allegations here," the Bishop said.
British Pakistani Abdul Qayyum, whose brother was stabbed and shop vandalised, said the violence had a racial subtext and was the result of tension over some time.
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