Yaad Ghar – Friendships, Community and Normalised Racism

My father Fazal Kareem, had already settled in England and was living in a back to back house in Holbeck, Leeds.  In 1960, my mother, brother and myself left Pakistan to join my father.  We arrived at Heathrow airport, where my father picked us up and we travelled back to Leeds.  I remember my father gave me a duffle coat with a hood, which had tussles at the front.  I also remember the day after our arrival in Leeds. I stepped out of my house, for the first time and as I stood at the corner of the street, people kept looking at me as they walked past. An elderly person walked past me from the opposite side of the street.   He kept glaring at me and only stopped because he nearly tripped over.   I felt they were looking at me as if I had just landed out of space. It was clear to me that day that they had never seen a coloured person before.

I attended Mathew Murray school, where I believe I experienced some negative racial bias.  During one incident, I was sat with my friends on the grass outside in the playground.  A new student walking by deliberately stomped his foot on my hand and walked off. I got up to ask him why he put his foot on my hand and he replied by swearing at me. I became angry and we had a fight. He went straight to the headmaster and I ended up being punished by having two canes on my hand and he was not punished at all.  The head did not bother to ask for my side of the story.

In my school days I had a close friend called David who would come to my house but he told me he hated the smell of curries and would not eat at my house. One day my mother persuaded him to try our food.  After that he slowly started to enjoy chapati and curries to the extent he told his mom he would be happy to have his tea at Farouk’s house every day-which he did!

I recall also my first job interview in 1970 to become a lab technician.  David and myself applied for the same job. After my interview, I waited outside the room whilst David was being interviewed. He was the last to be interviewed.  After David’s interviewer was over the interviewers came out of the room and I overheard the racial slurs spoken about “that *******  ******** will never get this job!”.

The interviewers were clearly surprised to see that I was still there and had not expected me to have overheard the racial remarks made.  I was shocked by the remarks but even more shocked that David, who I considered to be a friend did not say anything. This incident was one which I will never forget and the hurt that I felt. In those days there were no laws to protect us against discrimination, name calling and racial slurs were considered acceptable.  On hearing these hateful comments, you either became passive or aggressive. I tried my best not to lose my temper.  My focus was to educate myself, as I considered myself a dynamic person and wanting to get things done.

In 1968, I started attending Marlboro garden mosque, which was opposite the Parkinson steps (Leeds University). Mol. Shutari was the Imam at the time and a group of us decided to clear the basement area of the mosque to make a table tennis play area for the men.

Around this time, I also used to play football at Hyde Park with my other Asian friends. In the evenings we would gather at my friend Azeem’s father’s house on Brudenell Road.  Living in the property also were overseas students studying at Leeds University.  We would all get together socially at the house. As time progressed, we decided to look at Belle View centre as a regular place where everyone could meet up.

Not long after, we hired Belle View centre in Leeds 6 and we were able to use their facilities which included a cafeteria, two gyms and a hall. On many occasions we use to take the local community to the Lake District for weekends. One of my colleagues had a box truck with a shutter at the back and we would put two mattresses at the back of the truck so many of the families would travel in there. Once we reached the Lake District, the annexe building (which was Leeds University building) was high up on the cliff and the village was at the bottom. As I opened the shutter of the truck and the kids came screaming out with excitement, the whole village came out to look to see what was happening.  This was the early beginning of myself getting involved as a community activist.  I wanted to work to better things within my community and this is what I do and has become a part of me.

By the late 70’s we had a great influx of immigrants from East Africa. That’s when I also learned how to play hockey. Our group formed a hockey team and played matches locally, including with the local police. There was an agreement (joke) between the police and our hockey team that if we injured any police officer’s ankle, we would be given half a crown.

I recall a day when we drove back from north Leeds after finishing a hockey match.  We stopped at the traffic lights in the city centre and a group of skinheads started being abusive and to kick our car. There were five people in our car, we felt threatened and the need to defend ourselves.  We got out of the car with our hockey sticks, when the group of skinheads saw that, they all ran off in different directions.

My enthusiasm for sports continued and in the early 80’s we formed a cricket team and we played for ‘Yorkshire and Berkshire League’.

I continued to be active in the community and in the 90’s I became chairman of the Muslim Association in Beeston. My awareness of the unserved needs in my community was growing and I was getting involved in meetings and forums to highlight this.  In 1994 I received my first grant to address issues facing the elderly in our community. Subsequently, I retired from Muslim Association to focus on South Leeds Elderly, because the issues within the community were expanding rapidly and needed to be addressed.

Around 2000, South Leeds received a regeneration budget from the government. A partnership was formed with local churches, mosques, and local groups. In 2004, Hamara was born and within that partnership we took over the Methodist church on Tempest Road. Since then Hamara has grown and developed and have become an anchor organisation for the ethnic minority communities in Leeds.

My aim is to continue addressing unmet needs within the ethnic minority communities and to promote the value of education among young people.  At present they are losing out.  I believe that the future of our community is the young people and we have to be able to provide support from a holistic perspective.

Mohamed Farouk

Chair

Hamara HLC