Hindu-Muslim Civil Unrest in Leicester: “Hindutva” and the Creation of a False Narrative
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Hindu-Muslim Civil Unrest in Leicester: “Hindutva” and the Creation of a False Narrative
31st October 2022 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
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Ravi Lakhani is the National Co-ordinator for Vichaar Manthan UK, a platform dedicated to addressing the challenges facing British society through a sustainable and liberal lens. Having done a BSc in Medicine, Ravi now works as a Senior Analyst in Private Equity. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Finance at London Business School.
Fiyaz Mughal began his career working with the Citizens Advice Bureau in London. He went on to work as a lecturer at two different colleges, City & Islington College and Oxford College of Further Education. Then, he represented residents as an elected City Councillor at Oxford City Council & Haringey Council.
From 2004-2006, Fiyaz served as the project director for Diverse Trust, a group seeking to create meaningful connections between Muslim and Jewish Youth. Fiyaz also served as the Chief Executive officer for Enfield Citizens Advice Bureau before moving on to found Faith Matters in 2005 and Tell MAMA in 2012. While working in both Faith Matters and Tell MAMA, Fiyaz sought to develop social cohesion and worked on anti-extremism projects. For his work in supporting integration, social cohesion, countering extremism and tackling hate crime work, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Charlotte Littlewood is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. She is a PhD candidate in Arab and Islamic studies with the University of Exeter University. Her research focuses on minority within Muslim minority conflict in the UK, in particular the persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the extent to which the UK is able to support this community.
Charlotte started her career as a Prevent practitioner on behalf of the UK government, going on to be a Counter-Extremism Coordinator for an East London Borough. From this Charlotte went on to found her own community interest company with the aim of countering extremism and promoting equality. She developed and took projects that focused on women’s rights and tackling domestic violence to the West Bank, Palestine. Alongside this she consulted for Muslims Against Antisemitism, working towards greater tolerance and cohesion between communities in the UK.
Charlotte has a LLB in Law and MA in Security and Strategy.
James Spencer is Director of Communications at The Henry Jackson Society.
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EVENT SUMMARY
The Henry Jackson Society was pleased to welcome Ravi Lakhani and Fiyaz Mughal OBE to Charlotte Littlewood’s report launch on the civil unrest between the Muslim and Hindu community in Leicester and the false claims of Hindutva or RSS terrorists, propagated by the media. James Spencer began by introducing the speakers. Charlotte Littlewood then started the discussion by stating that when she visited Leicester, the community cohesion breakdown and religious prejudice between Hindu and Muslim young men were evident. She then stated that this had been narrated as Hindutva extremism & RSS terrorism from the subcontinent, which had created a wider threat to the Hindu community across the country. Ravi Lakhani then addressed the issue of Muslim patrols and the experience of attacks in Leicester, whilst stating that we must examine what is going on in our liberal society that we are giving illiberal people a platform. Fiyaz Mughal OBE highlighted that the issue has been fermented into an international issue by local actors and that any independent reviewer must give a sense of safety to these communities. Finally, the speakers answered questions on Islamophobia within the Hindu community, what justice looks like for this community, and what is being done regarding influencers who portrayed this false narrative.