Did British Muslim Men Throw Bricks At Women And Children?
Read Time:5 Minute, 48 Second
Oldham, Lancashire, just north of Manchester in the UK. A town once famous for its cotton industry, along with being the place where Winston Churchill first entered politics. A mill town without any mills now. A people long ago let down and forgotten by the denizens of the Westminster government. A hardy people living on the side of the beautiful, but in winter time, bleak, Pennine moors.
A town that has changed beyond all recognition, since a somewhat regular contributor to Mad Mikes America left it for the bright lights of London.
(That’s me by the way. Pay attention!)
These days, much of the Oldham skyline is dotted with mosques. A significant notification that much of the original populace have been displaced in favor of another kind of Oldhamer. Times, they are a changin’ as the song goes.
Many people in Britain and, indeed, elsewhere in the world, if they mention Britain’s race riots at all, tend to focus on London. The Brixton riots and the Southall riots of 1981 in particular.
Awful though these were, even in Britain – or at least London and the south – few recall that the worst race riots in the entire history of the United kingdom occurred in little Oldham.
They didn’t occur at the same time as the other race riots either. They occurred far more recently. In 2001 as it happens.
Quite why they occurred is often heatedly debated.
An elderly white gentleman was strolling through Werneth Park after watching the local Oldham Rugby team game. Werneth is one of several Oldham areas densely populated with Muslims.
He was savagely beaten, in what was described as an unprovoked attack, by several young Muslim men.
I say ‘Muslim’ rather than ‘Asian’ as almost all Asian’s who moved to the north of England in the 60’s and 70’s were from Pakistan and Bangladesh rather than India. Indians, being generally wealthier and better educated, tended to move to more London centric areas. The Muslims of Pakistan and Bangladesh moved to the north of England, primarily to work in the now long defunct textile industry.
Anyway, this old chap was savagely beaten and, to coin a phrase, it kicked off.
Simmering resentments – far too convoluted to talk about here – between the two communities – white Oldhamers and Muslim Oldhamers – exploded. Oldham burnt. Literally.
Ever since the hostilities of 2001 ceased, there has been a delicate, almost reluctant, peace. Both communities living separate existences in their own communities. Never the twain shall meet and all that.
On Saturday 18th May, 2019, Tommy Robinson came to town. Oldham town that is.
Tommy Robinson is something of a controversial figure. Firstly he isn’t actually called Tommy Robinson. That is a nom de plume he created many years ago when, as Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, he set about his crusade to rid Britain of Islam.
The nom de plume being necessary, he has said, to protect his family. Regardless of the fact that everybody now knows his real name, he is still referred to as ‘Tommy Robinson’ virtually everywhere. Well? What’s in a name?
He founded the now outlawed ‘English Defence League’ – a far right organisation. He left them claiming that they had drifted too far to the right for his liking.
Tommy Robinson is attempting to get elected to the European Parliament as an independent candidate. He organised a rally in Oldham.
Unwise? Yes. Inflammatory? Yes, given his anti-Islam rhetoric. Illegal? No. Providing neither hatred nor violence is incited, he is quite within his rights to be critical of Islam. We are all within our rights to say what the hell we like, providing we do not incite hatred nor violence.
Men, women and children gathered to listen to what Tommy Robinson had to say. Predominantly white men, women and children not entirely surprisingly.
A large group – thought to be around 300 strong – of Muslim men gathered in Werneth park. Their intention, seemingly, to march to, and demonstrate against, the Tommy Robinson rally. All well and good so far.
The police escorted them towards the rally. Many were openly carrying large trays of eggs.
On the grounds that making omelettes seemed unlikely, it is slightly bizarre that the police didn’t register this and consider what the eggs were to be used for.
In any event, the Muslim men – calling themselves ‘The Muslim Defense League’ – arrived at the rally with their police escort. They then started throwing eggs at the attendees.
Despite having plenty of eggs, they then decided to increase their firepower with bricks and bottles.
The police did precisely nothing.
A 300 strong group of Muslim men threw bricks and bottles into a crowd of people containing many women and children and the police did nothing.
Now. I am often accused of ‘Muslim bashing’ by commenters here and, you are quite entitled to your opinion. In fact, I would defend your right to call me names all day long. That is what ‘freedom of speech’ is all about – or, what some of it is about anyway.
I would defend the right of the Muslim men to protest at Tommy Robinson being in Oldham. They could stand nearby and wave protest banners, make protest speeches and do what ever they wanted to do within the law.
Throwing bricks and bottles at women and children is not acceptable behavior.
What is also not acceptable is the police not intervening – and no, I have no idea why. A suspicion yes, but no more than that.
It is also equally worrying that, in a statement, the police insisted the violence was perpetrated by a group of people.
Yes. And? People? What people? Teenagers? Male? Female? Elderly? White? Black? A mixture? Chinese? Russian? German?
The police were impotent.
The only reason I can come up with is that they were terrified of doing their duty, and stopping and arresting the brick and bottle throwers because they were Muslim. They were afraid of being called ‘Islamophobic’ and ‘racist’. I can think of no other reason up to now. Can you?
What the police also achieved is a massive publicity coup for Tommy Robinson which, almost certainly, will increase his voter base.
Having spoken to many friends who have spent their entire lives in and around Oldham, I am aware of something that the ‘authorities’ are either unaware of, or are simply hoping will go away.
The Oldham race riots of 2001 were terrible indeed.
I sincerely hope that I, and the friends still in Oldham are wrong but, if they are right – and they live there – then what happened in 2001 will be as nothing to the storm that is coming to my poor home town.
I said to one Oldham friend, “You make it sound like you’re going to war!”
His calm and composed reply actually sent shivers down my spine.
“We already are”.
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Oldham needed you that day Bill 😁👍
No one, I imagine, specifically wanted to hurt children or women. I been around protests a few times. It is clearly no place for children. However, and I sorry for repeating myself, but protests and demonstrations have a very high probability of resulting in some degree of violent behavior. Rational people know this and likely would not want their children placed in harms way. But, those who do bring their children may as well be offering them up as sacrificial lambs. It is sort like taking a child to a fight and stand behind them whilst they taunt the opposition.
It was a political rally near a residential area so, unsurprisingly, entire families attended.
Personally I wouldn’t take a child to such a thing, but it isn’t that unusual when an event or rally is in the open air.
It was a political rally by a controversial character to boot, which piqued people’s curiosity.
As I said, I fully support protesting against whoever is holding a rally if you disagree with them, it’s the missile throwing that should have been prevented.
Allowing a large group of Muslim men to behave like this will only fuel the support of people like Robinson.
Cause and effect?
Agreed. 100%. Then again I didn’t see any children in either the pictures or the videos.
That raises the question, “What the hell were children doing in that bunch”? I mean, should that fall to the stupidity of parents who bring their children to demonstrations? Penalties should be levied against those who put their children in harms way. Again, it is much like the terrorists hiding among innocents and then raising hell because of collateral damage among the defenseless women and children. Of course, terrorist are known for their cowardly ways it is no surprise.
I watched one of those YOUTUBE videos and they showed bricks being thrown, but not directly at women and children. Sorry. I’ll take the reporting of the world’s most reliable news outlets over YouTube old bean. Here’s one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVDtmAb68KM
Zero children seen anywhere. Bunch of right wingers taunting Muslims, and some ditzy blonde, clearly a Tommy fan, “reporting” the “news.” LOL. Total nonsense. So, link me ONE video that shows bricks being thrown at women and children. Just one. Remember I’m no fan of radical Islam, but fair reporting is fair reporting.
Mike : Seriously? You believe that? Three videos from the MDL show bricks being thrown at the crowd not the police!! When videos from the perpetrators show what they did, how much evidence is needed? Oh… Yeah… The BBC… Right 😂😂😂
Bill : Yes there were men too. I suppose I’m emphasising the presence of women and children to show how abhorrent it was. Equally wrong if it was just men but throwing bricks with the risk of hitting children????
Good question Bill. In point of fact, the demonstrators did not throw bricks and bottles at anyone and had the article not already been in the system I would have changed the title. Anyway, they threw bricks and eggs at police cars, not people. This has been reported by reputable publications all over the world. Our friend Neil got his information from personal YouTube videos filmed by who knows who, but we still love him.
I am curious Neil. Every time you mention the “brick and bottle throwing” it is in concert with women and children. Were there no males there or is it OK to throw at adult males but not OK to also throw at women and children. I mean it seems this way. I generally consider it bad behavior to throw items at anyone, unless they are playing dodge ball. This is much akin to the terrorists who hide among women and children and them complain because a missile intend for the terrorists also harms their “innocent women and children.”
Jess : I clearly said they had every right to protest. However, they had absolutely NO right to throw bricks and bottles at women and children. There is, and will never be, ANY justification for doing that. Ever.
So once again, Muslims, or insert people of color if you want, are just supposed to what, sit in the background and say or do nothing when the hate from the like of Robinson and his band of white supremacists go after them. I call bullshit on that. Now I am off to surf because I have had enough of reading about assholes on the internet today.
Incidentally, there were no ‘clashes’. All there was were bricks n bottles from the MDL.
If all the homemade YouTube vids came from Robinson supporters I agree, but some are from the MDL. The establishment are desperate to play this down… Understandably too.
YouTube videos are not reliable sources, and, in this case, are employed to inflame the Right Wing. I will trust the BBC, CNN, The Independent, and any number of sources before I will trust a bunch of homemade YouTube Videos that are easily manipulated.
Mike : The BBC are, hopefully, inadvertently, wrong. Plenty of videos on YouTube – from both sides as it happens – clearly show bricks and bottles thrown directly at people at the rally. Indeed, a number were slightly hurt by flying bricks. The senior officer(s) making the call to do nothing should be dismissed. If the front line officers chose to do nothing, they’re in the wrong job – and I like and support the police.
I know that, but you don’t. It has nothing to do with backbone and more to do with considering the larger picture. Please don’t try to pretend you know how the police operate. You don’t. Sometimes taking precipitous action based on a single circumstance can put more innocent people at risk. Secondly, according to the BBC, it’s clear no one’s lives were at risk here, and no one was injured. Eggs and bricks were thrown at police cars, not people, causing me to regret the title. Property, not people. The police did the right thing and should be commended for their restraint.
From CNN: Officers responded quickly to the disturbance, bringing it to a close without any reported injuries. “Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt and damage was only caused to vehicles,” he said.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/19/uk/tommy-robinson-oldham-rally-european-elections-violence-intl-scli-gbr/index.html
Mike : any cop with a backbone would take action to protect innocent women and children…. And you know that. Orders be damned.
Jenny : the something in question is, actually, nothing.
I saw video of the disturbance and the police did precisely, something.
Before we go overboard blaming the police, understand they take orders, and if their orders were to leave the Muslims alone that’s what they have to do, despite the fact they no doubt want to take action.