Radical social media influencers pushed false claims that Hindu nationalist groups were behind attacks in Leicester, sparking a backlash against the Hindu community, a report has claimed.
A new report by the national security think tank The Henry Jackson Society (pdf) claims that unrest has been falsely presented as involving organised Hindu extremist groups.
Leicester saw serious incidents of disorder following India’s victory over Pakistan in an Asia Cup cricket match starting on Aug. 28.
Groups of men from the Hindu and Muslim communities, mostly masked or hooded, were seen in tense confrontations and stand-offs on the city’s streets.
This then extended to Birmingham, including vandalism of property, assaults, stabbings, and attacks on places of worship leading to numerous arrests, voluntary interviews, and charges. There have been 55 arrests or voluntary police interviews.
The “Hindu-Muslim Civil Unrest in Leicester” report claims that this was a micro-community cohesion issue with Muslim and Hindu youth holding prejudicial attitudes towards one other.
But in the immediate aftermath of the protests, mainstream media outlets falsely put early emphasis on Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, organised extremism in the UK despite there being no evidence for such groups.
Report author and Henry Jackson Society research fellow Charlotte Littlewood told The Epoch Times that large think tanks, the press, and professional academics went on “a wild...
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