On September 20 (local time), a 200-strong mob of masked Islamists circled Durga Bhawan Hindu Centre located on Spon Lane in Smethwick town in West Midlands, England, after a call for “peaceful protests” was made on social media. The so-called protest, which was more of an intimidating tactic of the Islamists, was organized against the already-postponed event of Sadhvi Ritambhara.
Her team had announced that the UK trip stood postponed owing to her poor health on September 16 itself. However, the Islamists decided to go ahead with the “protest” outside the Hindu temple. Several videos surfaced on social media platforms where the mob was heard chanting Allah-Hu-Akbar.
In a video shared by ISKCON’s Radharamn Das, Islamists were seen hurling abuses toward the Hindus inside the Hindu temple premises. They were chanting Allah-Hu-Akbar, and some of them climbed the fence wall as well. There were Police present at the scene, but in the video, it was evident that the number of Police Personnel was far less and not adequately equipped to handle a 200-strong mob of Islamists. The majority of the Islamists were masked in the video. Towards the end of the video, Police were seen making announcements asking the mob to move back. Some Police officials equipped with batons were seen approaching the temple to control the mob.
In a video shared by author Ratan Sharda, Police were seen forming a chain in front of the temple wall and using batons to push the mob away. A few Hindus were inside the premises recording the whole incident. The mob continued to chant Allah-Hu-Akbar and hurled abuses toward Hindus.
In a video shared by Gayatri from the same angle as Ratan Sharda’s, it was seen how Police approached the mob that was at the wall and pushed them away while they kept raising slogans.
Activist Rashmi Samant also shared a video of the incident and wrote, “Birmingham Durga temple yesterday. I wonder how Islamists get a free pass to bully Hindus, lie blatantly and get away on NDTV.”
Writer and commentator Wasiq of Henry Jackson Society shared a threatening video of one of the Islamists. In the video, the Islamist warned Hindu supporters of BJP and RSS that they were not welcomed in the UK. He said, “This is a message from Birmingham to the BJP and RSS Hindutva supporters. You are not welcome in Birmingham. You are not welcome in Leicester. You are not welcomed anywhere in the UK. None of your speakers, none of your hate speakers, are allowed to organize this b**lsh*t. We are now here outside the Mandir. It is a peaceful protest of more than 200 people. We just want to let you know if you come down, we are all gonna be here for you. Even the speaker cancelled look how many turned up.”
Earlier, OpIndia reported that Islamists had called for a protest outside the Hindu temple in Birmingham against Sadhvi Ritambhara’s event that was already postponed. However, the Islamists went ahead with the so-called peaceful protest. It was in sync with the anti-Hindu attacks that have been happening in Leicester.