The United Kingdom (UK) based think tank Henry Jackson Society (HJS) in its report on September 2022 Leicester violence has found no evidence of the involvement of Hindu nationalists in violence. “Evidence of a Hindu nationalist presence in the UK is tenuous”, the report said. The investigation was done by Charlotte Littlewood, Research Fellow at the HJS.
The report found that a fake narrative of ‘RSS terrorists’ peddled by Islamist social media influencers like Majid Freeman was used to rally Muslims from across the UK to attend the violent protests. The report said, “many of Freeman’s allegations of violence against Muslims perpetrated by Hindus in Leicester have later been found to have no evidence”.
The report also notes the video posted by another Islamist social media influencer named Mohammad Hijab on September 18, captioned Muslim patrol in Leicester, on Instagram, in which he was leading a Muslim group through Leicester. Hijab had called on Muslims to defend themselves against ‘Hindu fascism’.
“Contrary to press reports at the time, the investigations did not find ‘Hindutva extremist’ organisations operating in Leicester, but instead discovered a micro-community cohesion issue falsely presented as an issue of organised ‘Hindutva extremism and terrorism’. It finds that false allegations of ‘RSS terrorists’ and ‘Hindutva extremist’ organisations active in the UK has put the wider Hindu community at risk from hate, vandalism and assault. Some members of the Hindu community in Leicester imposed a voluntary curfew, some relocated to stay with family or friends until they felt safe to return, while still others were unable to return to work owing to fears for their personal safety”, the report further said.
“Accusations of ‘RSS terrorists’ lead to a number of Hindu youth to temporarily relocate for their safety. There has never been a Hindu extremist terrorist attack in the UK and the youth in question had no affiliation to RSS”, the report added.
“Allegations of ‘Hindutva extremism’ and ‘RSS terrorism’ in the UK has resulted in 5 incitements to violence and anti-Hindu hate online, vandalism of Hindu temples, and reports of assaults on the Hindu community and those who have professed support for the Hindu community”, the report further said.
Violent clashes broke out in UK’s Leicester in September 2022 when Hindus of the city were attacked by Muslims. Later violence by Muslims against Hindus was reported in Birmingham as well.
Earlier last week, after the 15 Hindu organisations of Leicester protested against the appointment of controversial academician Dr Chris Allen as the lead for the independent review inquiry commissioned to investigate the anti-Hindu Leicester violence, Allen stepped down. In the article published in The Conversation UK titled “Leicester’s unrest is a problem of the whole city, not just Hindu and Muslim communities”, Allen gave a clean chit to the Islamists and blamed ‘Hindu nationalists’ and the slogan of Jai Shri Ram for the violence that erupted in Leicester.
