On November 3, a UK-based think tank debunked the false claims made by Islamists about the presence of ‘RSS terrorists’ and ‘Hindutva extremist organisations’ in Leicester city in the East Midlands region of England.
The disinformation was peddled by Islamists to rationalise their targeting of the Hindu community and camouflage their acts of aggression as violence perpetrated in self-defence.
The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), founded in 2005, released a 39-page report [pdf] on November 3 and concluded that the false allegations had exposed the Hindu community in Leicester to hate, vandalism and assault.
“Contrary to press reports at the time, the investigations did not find Hindutva extremist organisations operating in Leicester, but instead discovered a micro-community cohesion issue falsely presented as an issue of organised Hindutva extremism and terrorism,” the summary of the report read.
HJS emphasised, “It finds that false allegations of RSS terrorists and Hindutva extremist organisations active in the UK has put the wider Hindu community at risk from hate, vandalism and assault.”
“Some members of the Hindu community in Leicester imposed a voluntary curfew, some relocated to stay with family or friends until they felt safe to return, while still others were unable to return to work owing to fears for their personal safety,” it further added.
The report, prepared by research fellow Charlotte Littlewood, cited temporary Chief Constable of Leicester Police Robert Nixon, and pointed out that disinformation had been the greatest challenge in containing the unrest in the city.
“The allegations stoked tensions and were pivotal in the numbers that joined the anti-Hindutva Muslim marches, the violence that ensued and the wider impact then on the Hindu community in the UK,” she added.
“Beyond the claims of RRS terrorists and Hindutva extremists, there were accusations of attacking a mosque, kidnapping (the man accused of kidnapping was not in the country and approach of a 14-year-old girl by three men (later confirmed untrue by Leicester police),” the report concluded.
The origins of the disinformation campaign
On September 13, a conspiracy theorist and Muslim fanatic by the name of Majid Freeman alleged that 3 men had tried to abduct a teenage Muslim girl. “CONFIRMED: An incident took place this morning not far from a college in Leicester,” he tweeted.
“A Muslim teenager was approached by 3 men but she ran away into the school. The college & police are aware of it and the family have been given an incident number by Leicester Police,” he claimed.
The conspiracy theorist even claimed to have met the family of the girl, who was traumatised by the alleged kidnapping attempt. “The girl is very shaken but she is ok alhamdulillah. They’ve reported the incident to the police. Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of this and the people behind it are caught,” he said.
The fake news was then amplified by other Islamists, who alleged the role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the alleged abduction attempt. The Hindu man, falsely accused of kidnapping the Muslim girl, was doxxed on Facebook and his residential address was leaked on social media.
The person in the photo has his home address shared with threats to go after him. You seem to have a cartel undermining law and order. The original post is gone but this is all over every SM platform still.@leicspolice @LeicsAMP @leicesterhindu @EastLeicsNPA @LeicsSikhAllian pic.twitter.com/UQgYqFhEVv
— 𑆩𑆳𑆬𑆴𑆤𑆵 Sarah L Gates (@SarahLGates1) September 14, 2022
On September 14, the Leicester police debunked the disinformation through a press release. It said, “Yesterday we issued an appeal following a report that a teenage girl had been approached by three men in the area of Richmond Way, Leicester, on Monday morning.”
“A full investigation has been carried out. Following extensive enquiries, we have established that the incident did not take place and no offence was committed,” the cops confirmed.
Today’s update, covering the previous 24 hours 👇 pic.twitter.com/CSB5ZtpZvS
— East Leicester Police (@LPEastLeics) September 14, 2022
The deliberate attempt by Majid Freeman to stoke hysteria in the Muslim community and lay the foundation of violence against the Leicester Hindus did not stop the city Mayor to arrange a meeting with him.
A similar modus operandi during the 2002 Godhra carnage
It has been 20 years since 59 Hindus, travelling by Sabarmati Express, were burnt alive by Islamists in Godhra. However, soon after the carnage unfolded, the usual suspects began peddling conspiracy theories to rationalise the brutal killing of the karsevaks returning from Ayodhya.
One of the fake stories that was doing the rounds in mainstream media was the alleged abduction of a young Muslim girl by the karsevaks over a dispute with her father (who happened to be a bearded tea seller).
“Hearing the chaos, the daughter (16) of the old man who was also present at the station came forward and tried to save her father from karsevaks. She kept pleading and begging them to stop beating her father and leave him alone,” a report in Outlook read.
“But instead of listening to her woes, the karsevaks lifted the young girl and took her inside their compartment (S-6) and closed the compartment door shut. The train started to move out of the platform of Godhra railway station,” it continued.
“The old man kept banging on the compartment doors and pleaded to leave his daughter. Just before the train could move out completely from the platform, two stall vendors jumped into the last bogey that comes after the guard cabin. And with the intention of saving the girl, they pulled the chain and stopped the train,” it said.
Later, the Nanavati Commission, probing the case, junked the allegations. After careful scrutiny of her evidence, the Commission came to the conclusion that the version of the supposed victim did not appear to be true.
“The alleged attempt to abduct her was made while they were near the bookstall. That would mean that they were almost in the middle of the covered portion of the platform and very close to the offices of the railway staff. The evidence discloses that there were many persons on the platform,” it noted.
“Apart from passengers, many Muslim vendors were there. The railway staff was present in their offices. Some policemen were also present. If she had raised shouts to save her then they would have been heard at least by some persons who were near about but not a single vendor or anyone else has come forward to support her version,” the Commission emphasised.
“Her explanation that she was much frightened and had giddiness and, therefore, they had decided not to go back to Vadodara on that day, does not appear to be true,” it further stated.
The parallels between the two incidents of violence targeting Hindus and the fake stories floated of a Muslim girl being abducted, harassed by Hindus which triggered violence in a bid to justify the same is alarming. In both the cases, Leicester as well as Godhra, the Islamists and their apologists conjured up fake stories to make the Hindus come across as aggressors and justified the violence perpetrated on them as ‘retaliation’ to save honour of a woman of Muslim community. However, as can be seen, in both the cases, no such incident of harassment of the Muslim girl took place and a fake narrative was created to simply unleash violence on Hindus and obfuscate the facts to further propaganda.
