By Elham Asaad Buaras

A Muslim-led report on the 2022 East Leicester unrest, authored by the UK Islamic Mission Council (UK-IMC) and the Centre for Policy on Faith (CPF), argues that Leicestershire Police failed to act against a deliberate campaign of Hindutva extremism, allowing violence to escalate and eroding Muslim residents’ trust in law enforcement. The report, Community Tensions, Hindutva, and Islamophobia Leicester City: A Case Study, asserts this failure enabled provocation and undermined community confidence.

The 96-page report also draws on nearly 500 testimonies to argue that the events were not a mutual conflict but a one-sided campaign of provocation by a small, organised Hindutva fringe. The report rejects the narrative of a “clash” between two communities.

Witnesses described masked men marching through Muslim-majority neighbourhoods chanting “Jai Shri Ram” — a slogan weaponised by anti-Muslim mobs in India — outside mosques, harassing women, and setting off fireworks to intimidate residents. They say the aggression was calculated, sustained, and designed to provoke a reaction that could be spun as Muslim-instigated violence.

“It wasn’t spontaneous,” one participant told investigators. “It was organised. They wanted us to react—and when we finally did, we were blamed for it.”

The report alleges police repeatedly failed to intervene. “The police just stood by and watched,” said another resident. “They were more concerned about avoiding bad press than stopping the violence.” Others described officers as “hostile” and “surveilling us rather than supporting us.” The inquiry warns that this perceived inaction—whether real or imagined—has left a “serious barrier” to rebuilding trust in the force.

The Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations welcomed the report, describing it as “critically important and timely,” highlighting the “complex interplay of hateful anti-Muslim ideology and growing Islamophobia.” They urged authorities to handle the city’s fragile social fabric with “great sensitivity, wisdom, and balance,” calling on citizens’ concerns to be taken seriously and advocating the report as “essential academic evidence and reading” for understanding and learning.

This story was originally published in muslimnews.co.uk. Read the full story here.