Two children arrested after skip set on fire in Pickering
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The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Before, I felt safe and the locals were nice': asylum seekers on how Epping protests have transformed daily life
Asylum seekers living in the Essex hotel that has become a target of protests and far-right incitement have said they fear for their lives after being attacked on the streets and, in some cases, needing medical treatment afterwards. The situation for men living in the Bell hotel, where they had previously felt safe, has been transformed since the protests began, according to another asylum seeker who was filmed being chased down the street by men involved in the demonstrations. Speaking near the hotel in Epping, an asylum seeker who had fled war in his home country of Yemen said injuries on his face had been caused when six men attacked him while he was out walking. 'They were in two cars and they were ready. They were waiting for us,' said Nabil*. As he spoke, abuse was shouted from a car driving past. A friend who was with him, Jibreel*, from Kuwait, said those in the hotel were being confined to their rooms during the protests, which are now happening during the week and at the weekends. 'It's not safe for us here and we know this,' he said. 'We're here in the UK for different reasons – in my case it's because of politics and persecution in my home – but we just want to be able to live, to study and do something here. He said he had crossed the Channel in a small boat from France, arriving with the body of a friend who had drowned en route. Police have made 18 arrests and charged seven people in connection with the demonstrations, which have drawn hundreds, including local people as well as far-right activists. The gatherings began after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault, although the far right has targeted the hotel for years. Asylum seekers living in the hotel have told the Guardian they want it to close as they no longer feel safe there. Abdi*, an asylum seeker from east Africa who was chased down the street by some protesters outside the hotel, said he had been unable to sleep since the attack. 'I don't speak good English but I knew some of the swearwords they were shouting at me, like 'motherfucker'. I have been living in the hotel since April and before the protesters arrived I felt safe here and we had no problem at all with the local residents, who were nice to us. 'But when I was chased I felt as if I was running for my life. I am sure it was a racist attack because I am black and the people pursuing me were white and I had done nothing to them. I hadn't broken the law, I make sure I never even drop litter. I was just walking along carrying some shopping. 'But now I feel that some of the protesters want to get people like me. I experienced bad things in my country but here I can't even ask those people who attacked me why they attacked me, because my English is not good. 'I didn't come to this country to cause harm to anyone, just to feel safe. If the police were not here, I don't know what we would do. They are the only thing standing between us and some of the protesters attacking us. Before we used to leave the hotel individually but now we leave in bigger groups for protection.' The protests show no sign of easing, and a major police operation is planned for this Sunday. Counter-demonstrators from Stand Up to Racism are also planning to gather in Epping. The protests are being promoted on Facebook groups, while misinformation is being shared and amplified on X. One Facebook group – Epping Says No! – has administrators from the far-right Homeland party. Asylum seekers in hotels in other areas of the country were watching the protests anxiously and said they were fearful too. However, several of them had signed an open letter, coordinated by the charity Care4Calais, addressed to 'our brothers and sisters in Epping and others in asylum accommodation'. It states: 'We thought we were safe in the UK but now we are afraid again. Let's not allow fear to divide us. Let's keep supporting one another.' Addressing the British public, it says: 'Some of you have shown us great kindness and we will never forget it. Please keep standing up against hate.' Appealing to the UK government, it says: 'While we wait [for our asylum decisions] protect us, respect us and treat us with dignity.' Research shared with the Guardian by the refugee theatre group Phosphoros Theatre found that, of 37 young asylum seekers surveyed, 49% felt mentally affected by last year's riots one year on, and 69% felt loneliness. * Names have been changed
Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Christian preacher is arrested and threatened with 'non-crime hate incident' after asking Muslim woman about passages in the Koran
A Christian preacher of 25 years was arrested after reportedly asking a woman in a headscarf what she thought about Quran verses on domestic violence. John Steele, 60, had been out in Rotherham town centre on June 21 when he engaged in a '30-second conversation' with the passerby at a public awareness stall. But following the encounter he was detained by police and threatened with a 'non-crime hate incident' (NCHI). The South Yorkshire town has already been mired in accusations of 'two-tier policing' amid police reluctance to act on the systematic rape of young girls by predominantly Pakistani men due to community cohesion concerns. In body worn camera footage of the incident Mr Steele chuckles to himself and tells police 'the world's gone mad' adding 'I asked a simple question'. But an officer explains: 'This is the world we live in. I think it was your delivery.... You could deem [this] behaviour and [your] actions as anti-social behaviour.' Another police officer says the victim felt 'frightened', adding: 'That lady has flagged a police officer down and said she has felt threatened by your manner. So for me that's anti-social.' Mr Steele, who has been preaching the gospel for 25 years without incident, had been holding a sign that read 'God now commandeth all men every where to repent - Acts 17.30'. The former miner and long-serving bus driver claimed the conversation with the member of the public had been brief and polite. Despite this, officers can be heard demanding Mr Steele's personal details which he refuses to provide. A policeman says: 'John, we're saying you've behaved in an anti-social manner because she's felt harassed, alarmed and distressed by your behaviour - by how you've approached her and the question that you've asked her and the manner that you've asked it.' The officer adds: 'I've never had any issues with you before.' Following his continued refusal to provide his details, Mr Steele is then led away to a police car. His representatives have claimed he was taken to Rotherham police station, where he was detained, fingerprinted, and DNA-swabbed. A court date was set but the Crown Prosecution has since discontinued the case, stating the prosecution was 'not needed in the public interest'. Mr Steele, a former heavy drinker and militant during the 1984 miners' strike, said he became a born-again Christian in 1987 after reading Psalm 7. Speaking on his experience, Mr Steele said: 'I've spent my life trying to help people find hope and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. I've seen the devastation caused by abuse, and I wanted to speak truth in love. Instead, I was treated like a criminal. 'I was shocked and gobsmacked. How can asking a question be labelled as hate? 'It was degrading. They took my DNA and fingerprints, for what? A 30-second conversation. 'This wasn't about me. It's about the erosion of our hard-won freedoms and the right to speak truth in love. 'I've never been arrested in 25 years. I wasn't there to cause trouble, I was there out of love, to share hope and to help people understand the love of Christ.' Mr Steele had reportedly been questioning the passerby on a Quran verse that reads: 'if you sense ill-conduct from your women, advise them ˹first˺, ˹if they persist,˺ do not share their beds, ˹but if they still persist,˺ then discipline them ˹gently˺'. The verse has caused controversy with critics saying it justifies domestic violence while proponents argue it has been taken out of context. Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: 'We welcome the fact that this case has now been dropped, but it should never have progressed as far as it did. 'This is a clear and disturbing example of two-tier policing. It is both irrational and unlawful for officers to threaten members of the public with so-called 'non-crime hate incidents' simply for expressing lawful and peaceful views. Ms Williams added South Yorkshire had been 'one again undermining public trust' following the incident and her group would be investigating whether a 'hate incident' had been wrongly recorded against Mr Steele's name 'despite his complete vindication'. Over 250,000 NCHIs have been recorded in England and Wales since 2014 - an average of 68 per day. Critics argue that NCHIs are being weaponised to silence dissent, especially on controversial topics. NCHIs are defined by the UK College of Policing as: 'Any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender status.' No evidence is required, and no crime needs to have occurred. If someone feels offended or distressed, police are instructed to record the incident, often placing it on the individual's police record despite no crime having been committed.
Telegraph
13 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘Intimidation campaign' by supporters of pro-Gaza MP leaves town in terror
Supporters of a pro-Gaza independent MP are terrorising people in a West Yorkshire town, the local Tory leader has claimed. Qadeer Ghafoor, the chairman of the Dewsbury Tories in West Yorkshire, has claimed he and his family have been personally threatened after falling out with some of the supporters over a business dispute. After reporting the claims to police, Mr Ghafoor, 34, was advised by officers to move out of his home for a night and install a panic alarm so he could call for immediate help if he was attacked. Other colleagues and associates have also reported their cars being torched, receiving death threats, or suffering arson attacks on their property. The violence follows a general election campaign last year in which Heather Iqbal, the losing Labour candidate, complained of 'intimidation, abuse and harassment' in the run-up to polling day on July 4. Ms Iqbal said supporters of Iqbal Mohamed, the successful independent candidate, chased her down the street and shouted that she was a 'child murderer' and a 'genocide agent', while a loudspeaker van blared out the message that Labour was a Zionist party. Those to have expressed support for the MP online include a member of an organised crime group. She said Muslim Labour members in Dewsbury were under huge pressure to quit the party because of its stance on Gaza, with their children bullied at school for having a parent in Labour. The incidents provide a worrying insight into a brand of sectarian politics apparently on the rise in parts of the UK in the wake of Hamas's Oct 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. It comes after four independent pro-Gaza MPs were elected to the House of Commons for the first time in 2024, many of them in seats once regarded as safely Labour. At the time, their victories fuelled fears that divisive faith-based politics were coming to the UK. 'The way the [Dewsbury] campaign was done involved a lot of bullying and harassment and, ultimately, they were able to influence the outcome of the election by scaremongering people,' said Mr Ghafoor. 'There was a van following the Labour team around, shouting while they were door-knocking, saying they were a Zionist party and you will not be a Muslim anymore if you vote for the Labour Party.' The Dewsbury and Batley constituency used to be a two-way fight between the Tories and Labour, but the fracturing of politics saw Mr Mohamed take 41 per cent of the vote over Labour's 23 per cent. Reform, on 16 per cent, squeezed the Tories into fourth with 11 per cent. Mr Ghafoor said it had left a toxic political atmosphere that he believed was now spilling over into threats and violence unprecedented in modern British politics. 'They have now won an election which means, in their heads, that they think they have got their guy through the door in the corridors of power and they believe they are untouchable,' he said. 'Things have got worse and worse since the general election in the local community. There are people affected by arson, there are cars being burned, people being beaten up and their lives threatened.' Mr Ghafoor, a father of two who runs his family property business, said he had become a target after standing up to them. 'It is upsetting for me because I feel like if they can do it to me – someone as well known in the community, who is well respected and [has] done well in business – they can do it to anybody.' He claimed he was told by intermediaries in a financial dispute of the potential threats to him and his property from supporters of the MP. A suspect is understood to have been arrested and released by police under investigation. Mr Mohamed denied the claims, saying he had run his election campaign in a 'clean, polite, humble and professional' way. He said he was aware of one complaint to police but the force closed it with no further action taken. He said he was not responsible for other people's 'unlawful and unacceptable' behaviour or actions. Mr Ghafoor said: 'I can only deal with this by standing up for what is right. If they do it to someone else who doesn't have the resources and network I have, then he or she is going to do something terrible like commit suicide. 'These people are nasty but I am prepared to put up a fight against them because I believe it is the right thing to do. The police have reassured me that they have everything in place to make sure that I am safe.' He said it had been an anxious time, interspersed with moments of 'panicking, worry and staying up at night watching out my window, not being able to sleep'. 'I was genuinely worried, I have never been that worried in my life,' he said. 'Like a third-world country' Mr Ghafoor is not alone. Others in Dewsbury claim to have fallen foul of the violence. Mohammed Akram, 33, said his sister, her husband and their baby had been subjected to such attacks at their home in Dewsbury while they were breaking their fast for Ramadan at 4.15am in March this year. 'Her husband goes to take out the rubbish to the bins and sees the garden fence is on fire. At that time it wasn't that big but had he not seen it, the whole fence leads to the house and it could have been set on fire,' he said. Police, who arrived to investigate the arson attack, offered to move them out but they decided to remain in the house with a panic button to alert police to any further threats. Officers are understood to have made three subsequent arrests including a supporter of Mr Mohamed. It was the second arson attack on the family, after a prized 'antique' Mitsubishi L200 4x4, belonging to Mohammad Akram, the father, was set alight in January. Again, it was early in the morning and they were only alerted to it when a milkman saw the vehicle on fire during his morning round. After voicing their suspicions as to who may have been behind the attacks to the police, Mr Akram claimed he received a phone call threatening violence. Former textile worker Shyvana Tayub, 81, saw his car being set alight during the night by a suspected arsonist from his bedroom window last October. 'There was a big flash, a big bang. I was amazed how the person who did it did not burn his eyes and face. He came out from underneath the car and started running,' he said. 'If something had happened to my house, we would have been burnt. 'I came here as a child from Pakistan. I have been here 65 years. I was 100 per cent certain that I would be safer here than anywhere else. Now I have no faith that I will be. It is like a third-world country.' Mr Akram said he could have been targeted by a crime gang who wrongly blamed him for letting police search a lock-up that he was managing. It contained 30 kilograms of class A drugs and cash, which police seized, resulting in the prosecution of the gang members. According to Mr Ghafoor, a successful barrister who owned the unit has also had his £250,000 Lamborghini set on fire and wrecked at his Dewsbury home. One of the members of the organised crime group was Rizwan Arif, who was also a supporter of Mr Mohamed. Arif was jailed for nine-and-a-half years in June this year for his role as the 'money man' or 'accountant' for the organised crime group which supplied heroin and cocaine around the UK. The Telegraph has obtained a social media post by Mr Arif from July 4 last year in which he urges voters to support Mr Mohamed, showing a photoshopped image of the ballot paper with a purple arrow pointing to a cross against the independent MP. FIGHT IS OURS VICTORY IS ALLAH'S.' Mr Ghafoor said: 'The amount of people, homes, cars, businesses that have been attacked, we need to call it out for what it is. Terrorism is the use or threat of violence, often against civilians, to instil fear and achieve political, religious, or ideological aims.' Mr Mohamed said he was proud of his election campaign. 'It was a clean grassroots campaign that focused on the issues faced by my constituents in Dewsbury and Batley, our country, and the Conservative and Labour Party support for the genocide in Palestine,' he said in a statement to The Telegraph. 'Unlike previous election campaigns and dirty tricks by mainstream parties, my approach was to be humble, polite and professional at all times and to spend all our time, energy and resources listening to and connecting with residents. 'I did not speak about or post about any of the other candidates during my campaign and I did not encourage, employ or condone any aggressive, intimidatory, abusive or disrespectful behaviour.' Mr Mohamed added he was made aware of the one complaint that was reported to police and closed with no action taken after an investigation. He added: 'I am not aware of any of the other allegations or cases you refer to therefore cannot comment beyond the fact that I am not responsible for other people's unlawful or unacceptable behaviour or actions. All such actions should be dealt with under the law.'
