From late August to the 20th of September 2022, Hindus and Hindu temples in Leicester were targeted and attacked. Violent attacks and vandalism of homes by Islamist mobs over 3 consecutive nights of the 4th, 5th and 6th of September 2022, had left the Hindu community in Leicester afraid for their safety.

The testimony these workers and others stated formed the basis for a May 2021 guns-drawn, pre-dawn raid by Federal law enforcement, violating a highly sacred space. The unprecedented raid was accompanied by a simultaneous New York Times exposé which characterized the widely respected Hindu institution of BAPS as something close to slave-traders, the temple itself compared to the Temple of Doom from the Indiana Jones film series by other writers, and was even used to malign the current government of India, since BAPS originates from the same state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Two of the men suffered blows to the head and were left unconscious; all had to go to Northwick Park Hospital. They have all been left with cuts and bruises and two have been left with facial fractures. Tory MP Bob Blackman raised the case in the House of Commons on Thursday, describing it as “religious hatred.”

India on Monday condemned the “acts of violence perpetrated by extremists and separatists” at the Hindu Sabha Temple in Brampton in the Canadian province of Ontario and called on the Justin Trudeau government to ensure that all places of worship in the country are adequately protected.