UK race hate fuelled by hearsay and envy

Iqbal winced as his finger touched the purple bruising and neat line of stitches above his swollen left eye.

He stood in the wreckage of his fast-food shop, including an upturned charity box, looted of its donations to victims of the Pakistan earthquake.

The 33-year-old shopkeeper, who did not want to give his full name, said: "This is racial harmony in Britain today: where a rumour of a crime leads to a mob who trash your business and want to smash your face in because of your colour."

On Saturday night a gang of about 100 youths, most of them black, swept along Iqbal's street in the Lozells area of Birmingham, smashing his windows and display counter with cricket bats and bricks. The charity box was emptied of 200 donated by customers, both black and Asian.

A few metres from the kebab shop, a British Pakistani taxi driver suffered serious head injuries when his car was set upon by masked attackers, throwing bricks through the windows. Yesterday the wreck stood outside his house, a pile of blood-stained bricks in the front and passenger seats.

By the end of a night punctuated on at least 12 occasions by gunfire, one man was dead, 20 people were in hospital, including three with stab wounds, and at least a dozen homes and businesses ransacked.

It was the worst racial violence to have hit Britain's second biggest city since the Handsworth riots in 1985.

Police confirmed a 23-year-old black man had been fatally stabbed in the "burst of extreme violence".

Hundreds of police were patrolling the Lozells area to try to prevent a recurrence of the clashes between Afro-Caribbean and Asian youths, which officers blamed on a "minority" intent on stirring racial hatred.

The riots came after a week of friction caused by unsubstantiated allegations of the gang rape of a 14-year-old black girl by up to 19 Asian men in an Asian-owned shop selling Afro-Caribbean beauty products in the nearby district of Perry Barr.

Police said an exhaustive investigation had yet to find any evidence the assault had taken place and the victim had yet to come forward. Supporters say her illegal migrant status means she is too afraid to do so.

But the lack of evidence did not prevent details being broadcast in lurid detail by DJs for two Birmingham Afro-Caribbean pirate radio stations throughout last week. This led to protests outside the shop and a 1000-name petition calling for more to be done to trace the alleged rapists.

At least one of the stations, Hot FM, and a DJ named "Warren G", called for a boycott of Asian businesses in Lozells - a racially mixed area with a large Pakistan-Bangladesh community. Claims were made that several black women had been assaulted by Asian men.

The 33-year-old owner of Beauty Queens Cosmetics, strongly denied any sexual assault took place after being interviewed by police. He said a mob mentality had been generated.

"What kind of society are we living in when hundreds of law-abiding citizens can be duped into coming on to the streets to protest when the so-called organisers don't know exactly what they are protesting about?"

Police sources said they were investigating claims of incitement to racial hatred against Hot FM and another station, Sting FM.

Ilyas Mohammed, 28, who narrowly escaped injury when a brick was thrown through his car window, said: "The stuff Hot FM was putting out was poison. It was about how this girl had been attacked and the Asians were to blame. They said black people should not spend money in Asian shops and how we were too successful. The sub-text was obvious.

"It was more like Rwanda than Birmingham. What happened was black kids feeling they could respond to that by beating up some Pakis."

The riots followed a meeting at the New Testament Church of God on Lozells Rd, attended by two senior police officers and Labour MP for the area, Khalid Mahmood.

Police played down suggestions that the violence was inspired by rival Asian and black drugs gangs.

Assistant Chief Constable David Shaw said the meeting had led him to believe there would be a "successful conclusion" to rising tensions. "It [is] now clear people started the day with intent to create mayhem."

A figure in the Lozells Jamaican community said a sense of social injustice was behind the trouble.

"I'm ashamed of what I've seen - people from my community telling Asian shops to shut down or be burnt down. It is an absolute minority but beneath it is the fact that Asians have been successful. The shopping area on Lozells Road 20 years ago had two or three Asian shops - now they make up the vast majority.

Some people think that's down to some sort of unfair advantage and last night was their way of seeking their revenge."

- INDEPENDENT