The Oldham Riots - Lessons to be learnt

The Asian News marked the 10th anniversary of the Oldham riots earlier this year with a series of insightful articles around the disturbances. Happening before 9/11, those disturbances were to transform the way Britain viewed its Muslim communities, and also the way many Muslims viewed themselves.

Ten years on and we have witnessed more widespread civil disturbances, but not in predominantly Muslim areas. In reflecting back, what can we learn today? In order to learn lessons, OBV will be running the full series of articles written by Yakub Qureshi from the Asian News to mark the Oldham Riots - 10 years on.

From the Asian News:

Six days after the riots began, a petrol bomb was thrown at the home of Riaz Ahmed, setting it ablaze.

The Oldham councillor, who only just managed to escape with wife Safia and their four children, had been working to quell the violence. The 58-year-old grandfather, who later became the town’s first Asian mayor, told how his calls for peace went unheard on Oldham’s darkest day.

He said,

"I spent the night trying to reason with the people involved but they would not listen. I felt helpless. I was totally distraught that the borough that I had worked so hard for was going up in flames. Seeing your town compared to Beirut on the world news in such a horrible light was a new experience. In the days afterwards, things were very tense. I remember walking through the town centre and seeing a tension between everyone that was so visible you could cut it with a knife. I knew Asian and White families who were actually sat on their doorsteps all night, guarding against the fear of petrol bombs."

He added,

"When we realised our house had been firebombed, we did not leave immediately. I feared that someone would be waiting out the front or back ready to attack us again. We managed to get clear of the house and stood on the lawn and watched our home go up in flames. Those few moments will last forever. I seriously considered leaving Oldham. I didn’t go into politics at the cost of my family, but over the following days we received hundreds of messages of support from all over the country, and I realised that this was the real society and leaving would be giving in to a minority of thugs. Oldham responded in a positive and upfront way. We’ve learned from it and moved on. But we should never rest on our laurels."

OBV is running a series from the Asian News to mark the 10th anniversary of the Oldham Riots.

Picture: Riaz Ahmed