Leicester City, in England’s East Midlands, has seen a spate of attacks targeting the area’s Hindu minority. The outbreak of Islamic violence against Hindus began immediately after the India-Pakistan Asia Cup match on August 28. So far, around 50 people have been arrested in connection with an attack by Islamic fundamentalists on a Hindu gathering in the city.
On Friday 16 September, hundreds of Hindus took to the streets of Leicester to protest against previous Muslim violence against Hindus in the area. During the Hindu protest, the Muslim mob started attacking the Hindus indiscriminately with stones and glass bottles. The Hindu protest was disrupted by the Islamists after they threw glass bottles at the protesters. A saffron flag was also desecrated by an Islamist mob in front of the police.
Even the Indian High Commission in London on Monday, September 19, in a worded note condemned the violence against the Indian community in the UK. In its statement, HCI London also noted the vandalism of Hindu religious objects and symbols. HCI has taken up the matter with UK authorities and demanded immediate action against those involved in the attacks.
During these violent attacks by Islamists, a London-based journalist, Wasiq Wasiq (handled on Twitter @WasiqUK) was doing an excellent job of documenting the violence by Islamists and the provocative speeches made by Islamists in Leicester. Wasiq shared several videos of these provocative speeches directed against Hindus in the area.
Not only did Wasiq’s videos go viral online, but they also did a good job of exposing who is fanning the flames of hate in Leicester. In fact, his posts were also noticed by the local police as they sought to crack down on rising hate crimes in the area against Hindus.
We are aware of this video, it has been passed to officers to investigate hate crime offences.
We never accept or tolerate social media attacks on anyone simply for being who they are.
Hate crimes will be investigated and we will pursue offenders vigorously.
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) September 22, 2022
However, it appears that Wasiq may have shared a number of such videos for the consent of the Twitter authorities. On Thursday, Wasiq shared another video of hate speech directed at Hindus, in which a man said that the unity of Islam will tear vegetarian Hindus apart.
While the tweet was only exposing the hate-filled rhetoric being used on the ground to fan the flames of violence against Hindus, Twitter chose to remove the video for violating “community guidelines”. The tweet now remains deleted according to Twitter’s “rules”. As happens in most such incidents when Twitter removes a tweet, it is likely that Wasiq’s account will be suspended for another day. We have not been able to get independent confirmation if the same is the case with Wasiq’s account.
However, Twitter’s removal of the video exposing the hate speech directed at Hindus on the ground shows us that Twitter is not committed to letting the facts of the violence in Leicester come to light. When even the local police are taking the help of these videos to trace those responsible for the violence on the ground, the decision to remove such a tweet is quite strange.
