Hindutva Extremism In Leicester | Mufti Abu Layth

I want to just take out a few seconds and just speak about something that's that's really um some disturbing matters within the UK. So, those of you that are aware about what's been going on in Leicester within the UK, I just want to share my thoughts on that just very briefly because I've seen online from different people um especially certain uh from non-Muslim sources, people blaming Muslims for some

of the for allegedly causing chaos and for trouble and rioting and things like this. And this is completely counterfactual. And so those of you that are not not aware, there's been some trouble brewing in the Midlands within the UK um for a little while now recently in Leicester.

And what you have is a group of um Hindutva Hindutva is like right-wing Hinduism, that kind of Hindu fascism right-wing. And just straight off the bat, just making it very clear, most Hindus are not fascist and are not going to be right-wing.

And this is not a representation of all Hindus. However, there have been a number of Hindus that have that appear to have recently within the last few years come to the UK, come to Leicester, um so they mainly uh immigrants that have come here. So, they're brought up over there, come here on some student visas and things and what you know, somehow they've got here.

And they've really started to mirror a lot of what's going on in India, the BJP sentiment. So, in India, those who are not familiar with the politics, there's a lot of this um Hindu mob uh that incidents that occur where they go around and they lynch Muslims. And this has been going on at least since the BJP have been in power.

So, this last decade uh you you could you see a drastic rocketing rise in these lynch mobs of Hindutva that go around and they and they do things like they'll find Muslims that are eating beef and attack them. And obviously, that's And in India, Muslims are a minority. So, what's happened is some of these people in the last maybe I don't know, 5 years or whatever they've they've been coming over and they and they've come to Leicester, which has a a Hindu um from the ethnic minorities, it has a Hindu majority.

And there are Muslims that live in Leicester, also from Indian um uh from Indian ethnicities and background, mainly Gujarati Muslims and and a few others. So, what they've done is these Hindus that have come here, they they've started to re reflect some of the behavior that they've been seeing in India whilst they've been there. And they started to go around and um just taunt and try to traumatize and try to terrorize um local Muslims.

So, this has been happening for a while now. It's not recent. It's not like So, this has been happening for a while. It's been staggered. But in the last maybe month, 2 months, this there's been a spike in these events. So, they for whatever reason have become quite emboldened and they've gone around and they've attacked there's there's reports of they attacked a man in his 20s, a group of like 20 men with bats and sticks and they hospitalized him.

There was another incident and this is all within like the last month. There was another incident, a man 19-year-old. They just they would just approach men and say, "Are you a Muslim?" And they would just start attacking these people uh in in mobs, in groups and um and and then there was the uh um the Pakistan-India cricket match and when they won that they they won uh India won, they went around and found Muslim shops, started yelling, "Death to Pakistan!

Death to Pakistan!" Attacking shops. And they attacked uh a Sikh person as well assuming he was Muslim and hospitalized him. So, you've got these mobs going around of these cowards, nothing but cowards. And you look at them, absolutely scrawny little cowards that are just emerging in these mob in this kind of mob herd and they're going around and just picking just isolated individuals and attacking them just because they're Muslim.

So, before I just share any further thoughts, I I think it's really important to just highlight, look, why you know this message straight off that look, why can we just not live in peace? That what Indians and Muslims, I mean, Hindus, Muslims, whatever you name it. They've been here for for so long. I mean, that there there hasn't been this issue.

Muslims don't go around attacking Hindus. Muslims don't go around Look at the Muslim populations within the UK. They never went Pakistan lost the cricket match. They never went around attacking any Indian. There's no such thing. Sure, people may be upset that are passionate about these things, but there was nothing like this. You don't get Muslims going around on Diwali taunting and you don't get on on the you know, Navratri or these other festivals and celebrations.

Muslims don't go around This and to see some comments trying to blame these incidents on Muslim is appalling. Now, I want to say I feel that this whole incident was is so poorly managed by the authorities. How could they not see this coming? They're so ill-informed. I mean, there's reports, there's video clips of um these of hundreds of these Hindu Hindutva men uh kind of balaclava'd up and masked up and they're marching through the streets harassing Muslims.

They're going by like hundreds of them. They're doing this protest. And you've got the police there. And there's you get recordings of people that are they're recording right there and they're saying, "Look, look, that guy's got got a stick in his hand. He's He's He's wielding a weapon. Why are you not doing something?" And the police are not doing anything. And some of the Hindutva people are going past saying, "Oh, we should smash them up. Smash them up." And the police are not doing anything.

And some of the police and comments are saying, "Oh, is this over a cricket match?" Like, how are you so ill-informed over what's going on in the city? How can you not understand that the politics of a country that these people are from and connected to is influencing their behavior? They should have been on it. They should have moved in, had the Hindu community leaders involved, had them addressing people, had them out on the streets, had them sending these youth back, telling them that look, what on earth are you doing?

How dare you terrorize these Muslims? So, that's as far I really see this as such a um an a kind of incompetence on the part of the authorities for treating this matter so lightly that Muslims were being attacked, they were being uh beaten up, hospitalized. There there was a report that a school girl a school girl was stopped by three individuals who approached her out of the vehicle and said, "Are you Muslim?" And when she said yes, they tried to drag her into the car.

She luckily got away. What on earth do these people that this is this isn't India. This isn't the BJP. You can't just drag little Muslim girls into cars and think that oh, this is you know, this is somehow going to be okay and and I you know, I say and the authorities being so slow on this is appalling, abysmal. How can they let this And then, you see, this is the thing that the reason this was even allowed to happen up until now, like let's be honest, the reason is because the city that

they've been doing this in, one, it doesn't have a Muslim population. It has a very small Muslim population, relatively speaking. And two, that the Muslims that are there are you know, mashallah, very you know, mush you know, they they've they they have a very gentle approach. And they you know, very mashallah, very well-mannered and they they are people who always tend to have a you know, they which is a great thing, you know, they they want to always resolve things by dialogue.

A lot of cuz the Muslim community there is from the Gujarati community mainly speaking, and a lot of them are very humble brothers and humble kind of people in the Tablighi Jamaat and um and and what it that's done is it's emboldened these people to think they can come around with bats and things and just attack target of teenagers and and grab little girls, school girls, who claim to be Muslim and drag them into cars and it's like yeah, what is going What are the authorities doing?

And you see so many of these clips and the police I'm seriously ashamed of how the authorities have been responding to this. And people saying, "Oh, this is over a cricket match." No, it bloody isn't over a cricket match. And that shows how incompetent it is. And yeah, so what's happened is Muslims have then turned up. Muslims have gone down from Birmingham. They've gone down from other places. And obviously it's, you know, they they these people like the cowards that they are they immediately dissipated and just disappeared into thin air.

And this and this isn't a kind of I'm not condoning any kind of violence or anything like this. I believe that matters should always be resolved peacefully. But it's appalling to see that when people are being This isn't about words. They're being targeted and beaten up with bats. They're being They burnt Qurans. They took Qurans out burning them. Okay, for people may say that's their freedom.

They've been hospitalizing individuals. I mean, beating like a crowd of 20 people battering one person with bats. Putting them in hospital. They've beaten up several in the last few weeks they've done this. Trying to you know, these reports of grabbing a school girl trying to pull her into a car because she's a Muslim. So, yes, people have turned up and and they've react it's natural that there's going to then be a reaction to that.

You know, people won't just stand and say, "Well, oh, it's okay to just do this to little girls and do this like and if the authorities ain't going to defend them, then people are going to defend them." And I I just felt honestly so appalled by what's going on and I seriously I I and I say this that this what this Hindu Twa, which is the right-wing fascist Hindu extreme faction does not represent most Hindus.

And most Hindus, I believe, would be against this. And and I I would you know, urge these people to decry and condemn these groups. And not just because the Muslims that live in your neighbor seem to be these, you know, sharif, nice, uh, you know, sweet, gentle people that you're going to try to bully them and try to terrorize them and kidnap their girls and try to beat up their little you know, in the name of because of Islam.

You know, Islam isn't something that Yeah, so I wanted to say because it had me I couldn't believe like what what I was seeing on the things. It had me in a Ya salam. May Allah keep all people safe. I mean, I make dua. And I say this because I've spoken to people first-hand that I've witnessed all of these that I've witnessed many of these kind of things that live in Leicester.

I've spoken to people from there. I've been seeing things. You can see clips. You can see recordings. I just hope that the you know, this that the authorities step in, they do their job competently, that they realize that the higher authorities that look you you this this is not just this is not some cricket match. This is fueled hate sectarian hatred that is coming imported from India from the BJP.

And this is another reminder that you can't let international things go like unnoted or just ignored. When Muslims when people were raising humanitarian people There's been reports of people saying right now, non-Muslims, European global researchers, you have a very popular article by one of the first people who predicted the Rwanda genocide. He's written that he is now warning the world about a genocide that is going to take place in India against Muslims.

People ain't taking heed. And they just think, well, it's not our problem. But then this is how it You see, when you ignore and and keeping in mind that you know, many of these powers are involved and meddle meddling always in political affairs for their own gain. But when certain things happen over there and you ignore it and this genocide and you don't and get involved through the United Nations and don't try to bring, you know, Security Council resolutions and you don't do these things, then it seeps into these other communities and then it's, you know, you have these ramifications.

And then obviously people have taken up, you know, they've took a a stance, but this is a stance of self-defense that Muslims have taken. And obviously these people, you know, like the cowards that they are, have disappeared, nowhere to be seen. So, may Allah keep everybody safe, restore calm and, you know, just just stay love. Like let people be.

You know, just What seriously what is You know, people celebrate your festivals, your things. No, Muslims have never attacked people or criticized people for celebrating the Be Be Be you, you know, do you. Just let You know, there's a saying, "Jiyo aur jeene do." Live and let live. That may Allah safeguard and protect all the vulnerable people. Amen. And bring these these these thugs to justice.

Amen. I just want to say that. Shukran. All right.