Terrified by a racist attack on their house, a muslim parent have left their home to help keep their children safe.
“My family were terrified from the very first incident,” Murad Alam, 39, told The Daily Mail on Thursday, January 31.
“My wife had never experienced racism, neither had my kids.”
An offensive graffiti was painted outside the Muslim family’s house in Bingham in north-western Britain last month.
The attack came after a cross wrapped in ham was left on the doorstop of the family’s house.
“The first incident was when the big, wooden cross, wrapped in ham, fell into the house after a knock at the door,” Alam recalled.
“It really annoys me that they should use a cross and try and turn this into a religious argument.”
The Muslim father said that they had names such as 'Paki' and 'tramp' shouted at them in the street.
“My wife and children also had names called at them in the street.”
Seeking security for his kids, the father decided to move to his wife and two young children to West Bridgford, a suburb of Nottingham.
Seeing his kids teased several times on the street, Alam took the decision after he found that his young son plotting escape routes from the house and neighborhood on his computer.
“The kids have been abused a number of times; the eldest had smoke blown in his face by an elderly local gentleman,” he said.
“In fact I had to explain to my children what racism even was, because they're so young they didn't understand the concept that someone could dislike you because of your skin color or religion.”
Prejudice
The attack on the Muslim family is the latest in racist assaults on Muslims in Britain.
“This is one of a number of cases that we have seen where the anti-Muslim prejudice has had a shocking impact on the wider family,” said Fiyaz Mughal, director of Tell Mama, a national service that records and analyses anti-Muslim attacks.
“We provided practical support to the family where we could.
“They are though, moving away and fear that the perpetrators and the air of anti-Muslim prejudice in the area was just too much, which is very, very sad.”
Hostility against british Muslims, estimated at nearly 2.5 million, has been on the rise since the 7/7 attacks in 2005.
Police data shows that 1,200 anti-Muslim attacks were reported in Britain in 2010.
A Financial Times opinion poll showed that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.
A poll of the Evening Standard found that a sizable section of London residents harbor negative opinions about Muslims.
Last October, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has vowed to put an end to religious hate crimes against Muslims.
He also announced an extra £214,000 funding for Tell Mama to help halt attacks against Muslims.
The national organization will help to inform a cross-government working group set up to tackle the problem and follows work in the Jewish community, by the Community Security Trust, to record anti-Semitic attacks and shape action to prevent them.