UK gurdwara attack calls for more and stronger action against hate crimes

A gurdwara in Edinburgh has praised the response of Scottish authorities, and said it has been flooded by support from across communities. An arson attack on the premises on Tuesday morning has left the Scottish and wider UK Sikh community shaken and triggered calls for more concerted action from the UK government against anti-Sikh hate crime.

The incident was swiftly condemned by senior politicians, while the police in Edinburgh on Wednesday said they had arrested a 49-year-old man as part of their investigation into the fire. First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon described the incident as “appalling.” “An attack on any individual or community because of their faith or race is an attack on all of us. The Sikh community are a wonderful and valued part of Scotland’s diverse society,” she said.

Isolated incident

No one was injured in the incident — which is being treated as a hate crime by police that took place on early Tuesday morning. “Someone tried to burn down the front door. There’s a lot of internal smoke damage,” the Gurdwara said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Vijay Singh, the general secretary of the Gurdwara, said the damage had been less severe than had initially seemed apparent and had mostly been confined to the front of the building. They re-gained access to the property on the day itself.

The Gurdwara, which is housed in a former church, and runs regular free food stations in the city, was last the subject of an attack in 1989, said Singh. “We have a very good relationship with the local community and see this as an isolated incident,” he added. However, others pointed to wider concerns. “We note a concerning series of attacks against Sikhs in recent years,” tweeted one of Glasgow’s largest Gurdwaras, following the attack.

The incident also triggered concern from anti-racism and anti -hate groups as well as senior members of the British Sikh community who suggested the attack was part of a larger picture of incidents in the UK, and beyond, where members of the Sikh community had been become caught up in growing intolerance particularly towards Muslims. “The abuse is all too common,” said Lord Indarjit Singh of the Network of Sikh Organisations who added that he believed that attacks on Sikhs — particularly on individuals — were likely to be underestimated, because they were often conflated with Islamophobia, and because the wider rightward drift of politics and intolerance of “the other”. He called for a greater recognition from the UK government of the rise in attacks on Sikhs and strategies to help tackle the problem, including through an update to the government’s Hate Crime Action Plan.

Greater recognition

“Sikh places of worship attacked. Synagogues need security from far right and IS-inspired extremists. Mosques are increasingly becoming fenced off with cameras. This is NOT what we want for our country,” tweeted TellMAMAUK, a group that monitors anti-Muslim attacks following the attack on the Gurdwara.

“We are really humbled by the kind of support we have received — from the council, the public, politicians, emergency services,” said the Gurdwara’s Singh, who added that they had also been contacted by temples, mosques and by Jewish and Christian leaders from across Scotland and beyond who had expressed solidarity. “The reaction we have seen shows the compassion of the local community and will in the long term encourage more community cohesion and has left us more united than ever before.”

COMMENT NOW