The British Trayvon Martin: Mohammed Asghar

George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin could have been British. Many people I know, British people, write off the case’s outcome as another failing of the American government. Comments such as ‘America is a joke’ and “I hate America!” are thrown around by most. What people fail to mention is that institutional racism also takes place in Britain, and recently too.

Here is a list compiled by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) documenting deaths with a known or suspected racial element. One in particular caught my eye because of its similarity to George Zimmerman’s case; Mohammed Asghar. Here is his entry:

07/00, MOHAMMED ASGHAR, 43, HUDDERSFIELD

Stabbed to death outside his restaurant. In May 2001, an all-White jury found Jonathan Fairbank not guilty of murder, accepting he had acted in self defence.

The striking thing is, a search of his name followed by "huddersfield murder" has brought up just two articles about this case, and not from any mainstream news outlets, but from the Socialist Party and local paper the Huddersfield Examiner. The articles expand on the above, talking about Fairbank’s racial abuse of Asghar that took place over several weeks. Fairbank returned one day with a knife and plunged it into Asghar’s chest, killing him almost immediately.

What happened next is amazingly similar to the acquittal of Zimmerman. Everyone, including Fairbank’s lawyer, were convinced he would be charged with murder. However, the jury was also made up of white people, and he was also acquitted because he was acting “in self-defence”. The case also prompted protest, albeit, smaller and more locally-based.

Lee Rigby, victim of the Woolwich attack

It’s hard to quickly summarise why Trayvon Martin received more attention than Mohammed Asghar. Perhaps it is related to the scale of the reaction? The black civil rights movement in America is rather strong and influential, raising awareness for a case like this is not beyond them. Another aspect could be to do with the “war on terror”. This would explain why the racist backlash to the Woolwich murders has been scarcely reported, whereas Channel 4’s decision to broadcast the call to prayer outraged many.

In trying to summarise the reason the two cases received different levels of attention, I tried to explain the differing nature of British and American racism towards differing minorities, but the number of complexities and historical information that I could and should write about could lead to a whole book. In the end, the question is not really important. If people are being murdered because of their race, why should we bother explaining these intricate details that make our oppression different from somebody else’s?

What we should be asking, is when are British people going to respond to the troubles closer to home? It’s important to protest against corruption in other countries, but shouldn't we also be battling against the corruption in our own society? Millions know Trayvon Martin’s name, but how many know of Mohammed Asghar?