There has been a racist attack at North Ealing tube station at 5.30pm on Friday 23rd August 2019. A grandmother aged 60 and her daughter, who is in her 30s, were racially abused by a woman for wearing hijabs.Two women were first racially abused and then physically attacked. It was a brutal assault with both women being hospitalised, one with internal bleeding and the other with suspected broken ribs.The assault took place in front of the mum’s young children who are aged just three and six.
‘West London Stand Up to Racism’ organised a rally at 6pm on 6th September at North Ealing Station to show solidarity to the victims and their family, which I also attended along with various communities, Ealing Labour councillors Aysha Raza, Hitesh Tailor, Tariq Mahmood, Ealing Mayor Abdullah Gulaid, and Rupa Haq MP.
Members of the victims’ family also made an emotional plea to help catch the woman responsible for the racist attack. These ugly racist incidents are on the rise for almost a decade and 51% of reported racial and hate crimes are islamophobic. Ethnic minorities in Britain are facing rising and increasingly overt racism, with levels of discrimination and abuse continuing to grow in the wake of the Brexit referendum.
The likes of Tommy Robinson and low level politics of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson who have been sowing seeds of hatred and division amongst different communities shows how deep this poision of hate and racism has peneterated in our society and why we must confront it if we have to promote peace, harmony and cohesion in our society.
Tell Mama organisation has reported two significant spikes occurred in 2018. The first, in spring, reflected the “Punish a Muslim day” incident when letters were sent to Muslim homes, institutions and places of work. The letter suggested people could win “points” for a range of activities aimed at Muslims, including removing a headscarf from a woman or beating a person up. Muslim MPs also received the letters including Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Haq.
However,a second, more significant spike occurred in August after Boris Johnson wrote a column referring to veiled Muslim women as “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.
The gutter press scapegoat anyone who isn’t white, Christian or British for the grim effects of Tory Governments’ austerity program.
Ealing Borough is a gloriously rich multicultural, multiethnic and multinational community and like rest of the country, is under attack by austerity and we must stick together when one section is assaulted. Don’t let the racists divide us!
Labour is committed to tackling Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime, as well as all other forms of bigotry, racism and xenophobia. This is why we need a Labour government sooner than later which stands for the many, not the few.
