New Statesman – Muslim approach to gang crime is working in London
February 21, 2012 in News
Charities like Aasha Gang Mediation provide the things that working parents and the state can’t.
A short walk east from the gleaming glass of the RBS building by Liverpool Street station, through Brick Lane, through the low rise red brick and concrete blocks of flats that make up the Spitalfields Estate, there’s a big Victorian building, which looks like an old school. Outside, there’s a small football pitch, and there are kids of all ages and races playing on it, with a crowd gathered round, screaming encouragement.
Next to this old building is a newer one. At the top floor of this, three Bengali men are talking to a room full of local youths, housing professionals, youth workers and others. Harun Miah is a short, stocky man in his 30s. Next to him is Abu Mumin, a slightly taller, bald man with a beard, and beside him Udjal Kamrujzaman. None of them look like criminals. But they have a fascinating story to tell.
Abu moved to England aged seven, and as an 80s child remembers a tough childhood – bricks through the window, kids riding through his estate on bikes looking for Pakis to bash. His friend would stuff copies of the Yellow Pages in his shirt when he walked down Brick Lane. His gang was originally formed to combat racists, but as the years went by it started to get involved in other things – drug dealing, battles with other gangs. One of the gangs with whom there was a particularly vicious rivalry was Harun’s: “I wanted to track him down and do him some serious damage.” Read the rest of this entry →
