Oldham Dy. Mayor home attacked

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JUNE 2. The fragile peace in Oldham, rocked by racist riots last week, was broken on Friday when a petrol bomb was lobbed at the home of the city's Deputy Mayor, Mr. Riaz Ahmed, raising fears of renewed violence. The attack came days after he had blamed last week's incidents on right-wing white extremists.

Mr. Ahmed was at home with his family when the device came crashing in through a window causing extensive damage, but no one was injured. Police were treating it as a racially motivated attack and supporters of the far-right National Front which has been running a ``Rights for Whites'' campaign was suspected to be behind it. One report said that while Mr. Ahmed was being driven to safety after the attack two white men with shaven heads and tattoos lunged towards him but before they could do anything the car pulled away.

``This has got to stop. The majority of people in Oldham are law- abiding citizens and the community does not deserve this'', said Mr. Ahmed, a 48-year-old accountant from Pakistan and a Labour councillor for over a decade. A former Chairman of Oldham Commission for Racial Equality, he is tipped to become the town's mayor next year. The attack was also condemned by white leaders who said such incidents would ``sicken every right-minded individual''. ``Whatever the beliefs of an individual organisation, there is no place in a democratic society for attacks on persons or property'', the deputy leader of Oldham Borough Council, Mr. Chris Hilyer, said.

The incident heightened the tension with Asians blaming the NF and the British National Party for stoking racial feelings. The BNP, which stands for racial segregation and voluntary repatriation of immigrants, is contesting three parliamentary seats in Oldham on an allegedly divisive agenda. Asians also criticised the media for suggesting that whites were under siege from an aggressive Asian community. They were particularly upset by reports of ``no go'' areas for whites, and denied there was any such thing. Reports of Asian ``aggression'', they said, had been inspired by the police. ``The divide has been hardened by violence'', The Guardian said, quoting the staff and customers of a local pub as saying that the only way to ``clear the air would be an all-out confrontation''. ``We're fed up of the little niggles and sniping'', a customer told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Tory chief, Mr. William Hague, whose party has been accused of using racially coded language, said his party was ``totally committed to rooting out racism and bigotry''. Addressing an Asian audience in the predominantly ethnic Bradford, he was at pains to correct the perception that Tories were against immigrants and said he believed in ``one nation'' whatever be the beliefs or ethnic background of its citizens. ``It has never mattered to me whether people are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, white, black or Asian. As far as I am concerned, we are all as British as each other'', he said.

The Tory candidate in Bradford West is a Muslim, Mr. Mohammed Riaz, who is hoping to snatch the seat from Labour. A third of the voters in this constituency are Asians or black. Mr. Hague's remarks were in sharp contrast with the comments of some of his right-wing party colleagues who have publicly opposed the idea of a multicultural Britain.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, in an article in The Asian Age, catalogued the measures taken by his Government to bring down racial barriers, and boost multiculturalism. He said the new race relations law extended protection against racial discrimination to all public services, including the police and the immigration service.

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Section  : International
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