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Racial clashes spread to Stoke-on-Trent

British Muslim leaders will call for a full public inquiry into the country's recent race riots when they meet Home Office Minister Angela Eagle later on Monday.

Young Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin have been at the forefront of recent race clashes that broke out in the northern towns of Bradford, Burnley, Leeds and Oldham. Fresh unrest broke out over the weekend at another town, Stoke-on-Trent, with an estimated 200 British Pakistanis involved in clashes with police.

Now a delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain is pressing for a full inquiry into the causes of the riots. Members of the delegation also want the British government to introduce new laws against religious discrimination.

The delegation's proposed meeting at the Home Office follows last week's report by Lord Herman Ouseley, a former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, who alluded to the problems of Bradford arising from de facto segregation, intolerance and fear.

"Now is the time to separate unacceptable, mindless violence from the festering causes of discontent that made such appalling events possible" said Yousuf Bhailok , the Muslim Council's secretary general.

"A public inquiry will provide a framework whereby the frustrations of all sections of these communities can be expressed and investigated honestly and openly," he said.

"There is a need to examine the failures and shortcomings of policies that have not advanced a genuine multicultural society.

"There is now a stronger case to outlaw religious discrimination and incitement to religious hatred. What we have seen in recent weeks is the kind of Britain none of us want to live in." he said.

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