LONDON
\nFaith leaders in the UK have warned that violent clashes between groups of Hindus and Muslims could spread across the country after a flare up of tensions in the Staffordshire town of Smethwick.
\nIt comes after 47 people were arrested over the weekend in the city of Leicester, with other incidents reported in neighboring towns this week, stirred by intercommunal tensions in the UK and in India, and facilitated by false rumors about violence on social media.
\nThere have also been suggestions that the sectarianism in Leicester was sparked as a result of a cricket match between India and Pakistan on Aug. 28, while the violence in Smethwick may have been prompted by false reports that a Hindu nationalist was due to give a talk at a local temple.
\nPolice have been called to the temple and a mosque in Smethwick for a \u201csearch and disperse\u201d operation in a bid to head off further clashes, searching for weapons, fireworks and other suspicious items on people congregating nearby.
\nThey also confirmed that young people were traveling to and from affected areas to stoke tensions, adding to fears that the violence could spread.
\nHindu and Muslim community leaders issued a joint statement on Tuesday appealing for calm, which was reiterated on Wednesday.
\nAshvani Kumar, a trustee of Smethwick\u2019s Durga Bhawan Center, said: \u201cInterfaith leaders \u2014 Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Christian \u2014 were out talking to people and in the end only a few hundred troublemakers turned up.
\n\u201cSome may have even come from Leicester. We are now trying to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d
\nThe rise of Hindu nationalism in India has also been blamed for prompting the trouble. India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long been accused of Islamophobia and attacks on Muslims across the country have increased during his time in office.
\nAmong the rumors thought to have sparked the clashes was that a Muslim girl had been kidnapped from the area by a group of Hindu men, which police say categorically did not happen.
\nFootage on Saturday posted to social media, meanwhile, showed a group of young Hindu men in a predominantly Muslim area of Leicester chanting \u201cJai Shri Ram\u201d \u2014 meaning \u201cGlory to Lord Rama\u201d \u2014 which has become a favored slogan of Hindu nationalists in India.
\nMazhar Mohammed, chair of the trustees at Jamia Masjid in Smethwick, told The Telegraph newspaper: \u201cWe\u2019ve lived peacefully in this town together for many years and these tensions have been created overseas by right-wing extremists and brought over to the UK.\u201d
\nThe high commissions of India and Pakistan in London, meanwhile, issued separate statements condemning the violence, calling on authorities to restore order.
\nA source at the Hindu Council UK told The Telegraph: \u201cReligious leaders have continued to call for calm, but the youths \u2026 It\u2019s very difficult. You can\u2019t control them. It\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s going everywhere. I can\u2019t bring myself to say that it will come to London because we want to stop it somehow.\u201d
\nA Hindu man from Leicester called Vinod told The Telegraph: \u201cSocial media is playing a big part in this and there is an agenda \u2014 people are looking at creating disarray between communities \u2014 not just in Leicester but across all of the UK.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been informed that there\u2019s going to be something similar in Nottingham and Coventry. It\u2019s well planned with a narrative of anti-Islam and anti-Hindu sentiment, and it\u2019s the actions of a few fanatics who are trying to get a reaction,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cMy personal opinion is that if we are not careful, it will spread all across Britain, wherever there are south Asian communities,\u201d he added.
\nA local Sikh, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told the paper that troublemakers were traveling from as far afield as Birmingham, Luton and Bradford.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of young people behind this, using social media to settle scores,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople in Leicester are scared to go out in the evenings, especially if it\u2019s dark.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Faith leaders in the UK have warned that violent clashes between groups of Hindus and Muslims could spread across the country after a flare up of tensions in the Staffordshire town of Smethwick. It comes after 47 people were arrested over the weekend in the city of Leicester, with other incidents reported in neighboring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-285042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n