Restaurateur Abdul Harid has lived in Carlisle for 23 years, his three children were born in the city and he has been a Labour councillor for Currock since 2007. He has always found Carlisle a friendly, welcoming place.

“I first came here from London to visit my uncle,” he recalls. “It was pleasant and congestion-free. It’s a lovely city.”

But it turned ugly the day after the Paris terrorist attacks in November.

“My wife was going to work the next day and the car in the drive had been vandalised. There was a dustbin on top and graffiti all over it.”

The graffiti had been scratched on by something metal rather than painted, and most of it was difficult to read. But one item was unmistakable. It was a swastika.

All racial hatred can be frightening but when you are specifically targeted it is much more unsettling. “People know who I am and where I live.

“If you are out on the street and someone shouts abuse you can deal with it. But when you’ve got children, and somebody actually comes to your doorstep and does this, then it’s quite worrying.”

He’s not the only victim. “A few young lads from Asian backgrounds drive taxis, and one I know was getting lots of abuse from passengers. Eventually he left and moved to Milton Keynes.

“He says it’s a lot better there. There’s the same level of business and people are friendlier.”

The mosque in Brook Street has had its doors vandalised and its windows broken and is now fitted with metal grills and CCTV. It doesn’t stop racists shouting abuse at those going in or out.

And Mr Harid points out: “You get people from other parts of the country who will stop there while passing through to attend prayers.

“When somebody shouts abuse at them, it doesn’t create a good impression of the city.”

Yet he stresses: “It’s only a minority of people who are causing the trouble. I think things are improving slightly in the city.”


DCI Roy Ledingham However, police figures show an upward trend in hate crime for the county as a whole, as Detective Chief Inspector Roy Ledingham, in charge of hate crime with Cumbria Constabulary, has noted.

“From November 2014 to October 2015 there were a total of 447 hate crimes and incidents,” he reports. “That has gone up from 391 the previous year – an increase of 14
per cent.”

These offences also encompass crimes against disabled people, gay people, transsexual people and people on the basis of their religion. But the bulk of them – 258 of the total –were racially motivated.

Of course, increasing crime figures don’t necessarily mean increasing crime levels. It could simply mean that more are being reported, and DCI Ledingham explains that the police have made it as easy as possible to do so.

Not everyone wants to enter a police station – particularly if they have had a bad experience with the police in their country of origin.

He says: “We have set up reporting centres all over the county, places where people can make a report. There’s a full list of them on our website. Or they can submit them online.”

And he adds: “I think people are getting more confident about reporting them. If people are being targeted by any strand of hate crime it’s very, very important to tell us about it.”

Not all the racially motivated crimes caused damage to people or property. There were 106 assaults and 34 cases of vandalism, with the rest involving abusive language.


Saj Ghafoor But that can be frightening enough, as Saj Ghafoor found.

Mrs Ghafoor and her husband Abdul rum HDM Spice Shop, an Asian grocers in Brook Street, Carlisle.

“We’ve had the odd occasion when eggs have been thrown against the shop windows,” says Mrs Ghafoor. “It’s probably just teenagers messing about, but it’s happened a few times.

“But I remember once being in town with my children. My youngest was about eight and we were just coming out of Boots.

“As we came out, these two men in their mid-20s started shouting abuse, effing and blinding and telling us: ‘Go back where you came from’.

“My children were grabbing hold of me. They were so scared. I could feel them shaking.

“Now I would just walk away and try to ignore it, but at the time I was really angry. When someone swears at you as you walk down the street it can shake your confidence.”

So if racial hatred is still to be found, how do we tackle it? Reporting incidents is vital. “We treat all these crimes as abhorrent and unacceptable, and so we are very proactive in investigating them,” DCI Ledingham says.

“Get the police involved if there’s anything.”

Prevention is better than cure, and Mr Harid says the more people of different races interact the more tolerant they will become.

“Some see Muslims as people who are violent. But the principles of Islam include non-violence, charity, respecting each other and fairness. When people get to know a Muslim person they understand that.”

The ‘Carlisle culture bazaar’ which Mrs Ghafoor used to run aimed to foster that understanding. It brought together people from all the different ethnic groups in Cumbria – including white Europeans.

“Each culture brought their food, dance, music, art, or whatever transcended language,” she explains.

“It allowed us to appreciate each other without having to speak a certain language.”

The first event attracted 125 people. “The one in 2012 had 2,500.”

While there may be a racist minority in Cumbria, the different races for the most part mix well. Rev Isaac Lawrence, vicar of All Saints’ church in Scotby, finds more curiosity than prejudice.

The Anglican clergyman is originally from Pakistan, and finds: “People are often surprised when they see a brown face with a white dog collar. But I don’t think I’ve ever come across racism. People are more curious.”

However he concedes: “I do have a slight advantage when I wear my collar. People would tend to respect a clergy person. So my experience might be a bit different from that of a number of others.

“People have been very welcoming to us, so we have been very lucky.”

Racial hatred is not just directed against non-white faces. Eastern Europeans who have moved to Cumbria have been subject to it.

Rafal Pasarzak came to Carlisle from Poland in 2004 and his children were born here. He has never been subject to abuse himself – but thinks this is down to his good command of English.

“A few of my friends have had a bit of racism, though it wasn’t very serious. Having good English helps me avoid any problems.

“From my observation, someone who is more educated and has a job can avoid problems. People who struggle with English can struggle with jobs and housing and will be more vulnerable.”

But whatever racism may exist in Cumbria, Mr Pasarzak feels there is more of it in his homeland, where society is almost exclusively white and Catholic.

“My family and I have always been welcome.

“Cumbrians are more tolerant than Polish people, that’s for sure.”