The Hindu : Anger, frustration widespread

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 03, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Anger, frustration widespread

By Hasan Suroor

As tensions flared over a National Front demonstration, youths fight in the centre of Bradford, England, in this July 2001 file photo.

Amjad Parvez, a Pakistani businessman, bangs the table with his fist, glowers at the white priest facing him and says: "At the end of the day, the fact is that we are treated like second class citizens and that is the root of many of the problems.''

The priest, Rev Geoff Reid, of the local Methodist church who is the only white resident in what he calls a "Muslim street'' , shrugs his shoulders, starts to say something but then changes his mind. But it is not difficult to imagine what he would have said if he had chosen to respond. That Mr. Parvez is oversimplifying the situation. That, perhaps, he is protesting too much.

A year after Bradford suffered one of the worst racial riots in its history, the city is still seething with resentment and the police admit that the surface calm is deceptive. They do not rule out another eruption but claim that they are better equipped this time to handle it. "We are in operational readiness and we have better tactics now,'' says Phil Read, chief superintendent of West Yorkshire police.

But the police, we are told later, are part of the problem in Bradford. They are alleged to be `prejudiced' towards ethnic groups, and indifferent to their sensitivities. Currently, the police are the target of an angry campaign by families of Muslim youths who were jailed for their involvement in last year's riots .In the lobby of Bradford Hilton, two women in burqas tell a group of journalists from London that their brothers have been "sent down'' for up to five years for "just throwing one stone'' whereas white youths have "got away'' with lighter sentences for similar offences .

``My brother Shahzad Ali has been sentenced to four years and all he did was throw a stone. He has no police record,'' says Saarah Ali. Ditto Zahida Khan whose brother Aftab Ahmed (31), is in for four-and-a- half years. Their spokesperson, Shahnaz Lal, whose own brother is serving a five-year sentence, says they will "fight till the end''. Women from 40 affected Muslim families have come together under the banner of "Women for Fair Justice'' and every Friday they demonstrate outside the Crown Court where an appeal is pending. "These are absolutely harsh sentences for young boys who have no previous conviction and who simply got caught up in the riots,'' says Ms. Lal.

This is one issue on which the entire Muslim community of Bradford is united and even Rev. Reid agrees that the sentences are harsh. Others call it "unjust and racist''. Police vehemently deny this, and say that in any case they had nothing to do with the sentences. "It was the courts that did it,'' says Mr. Read adding that in fact the sentences were half the "normal tariff'' prescribed for rioting. Residents retort that the police deliberately converted a case of "disorder'' into one of `rioting' in order to prepare the ground for harsher punishment.

The larger question raised by independent observers is the effect that a long prison term would have on young boys who, even the police admit, have no previous record. When they come out, wouldn't they be more angry and frustrated? Haven't they been `stamped' for the rest of their lives? Isn't there a risk that they would turn to crime once they are out? Mr. Read agrees but thinks that lies more in the realm of rehabilitation.

``Yes, it is something we will have to work on,'' he says but insists that there was enough evidence to convict them. And, contrary to what almost everyone else in the town says, he maintains that the issue has not and will not strain the relations between the police and the Muslim community.

On the face of it, the police are trying to build bridges with the local ethnic, largely Muslim, community but there are deeper problems which the police can do little about.

Once a thriving textile town in north of England, Bradford has been through a rough patch after the collapse of the British textile industry which resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers — mostly Pakistani and Bangladesh expatriates — losing their jobs, in most cases their own only source of livelihood.

The town is still dotted with sprawling mills, but they are idle and decaying — a mirror image of the people who once worked in those mills. One hears of many regeneration schemes, but their fruits have clearly not filtered down to those who are most in need.

The result is frustration and anger which, with the slightest provocation, can erupt in violence as happened last year.

But does that fully explain the crisis which the town's predominantly Muslim expatriate community faces? Of the nearly 90,000 non-white population, Pakistanis account for some 70,000 and Bangladeshis a little over 3,000.

Hindus and Sikhs together are less than 15,000, and Afro-Caribbeans about 5,000. As the largest non-white community, it is the Muslims who are at the heart of the story of Bradford which despite attempts at regeneration, including an ambitious bid to compete for Europe's City of Culture competition, remains a rather sad town.

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