Extremist groups were today blamed for a 15 per cent rise in racist attacks in Basildon so far this year.

At the beginning of the year there were 5.4 incidents for every 100,000 people living in the district.

Between April and June that increased to 6.25 incidents.

Basildon Council leader Malcolm Buckley said: "It is a matter of regret. If people are legitimately living in the district they should be able to live peacefully as part of the community.

"We believe the activity of some of the more extreme groups has an effect on unrest."

Basildon Council is unable to give any examples of racial incidents, explaining that it could be anything that anybody thought was racially motivated.

But the BNP insist it has nothing to do with any increase.

A spokesman said: "It has got nothing to do with us. It is down to the establishment. In Burnley where we have got the largest number of councillors the number of racial attacks has gone down. They go down from the white community because they feel they are being listened to."

Sarfraz Sarwar, leader of the Basildon Islamic Centre, who has been targeted himself in race hate attacks, said: "There is definitely a big increase. We had nothing happen for 32 years and it started all of a sudden."

"A lot of it is down to Islamaphobia, which started with September 11 and the Iraq war. The media has stoked that."

Published Friday August 13, 2004

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