Up to 20 Muslim graves have been vandalised in a racially motivated attack at a south Manchester cemetery. Vandals struck at the Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road sometime overnight on Thursday. Staff arrived at the cemetery to find up to 20 gravestones had been deliberately pushed over, and a number had broken. The attack is being treated as racially motivated as only Muslim graves were targeted.

Det Con Rob Southern said: “This is the worst sort of vandalism imaginable. The graves of your loved ones should be a place where they can rest peacefully and that is absolutely sacrosanct. Sadly, we are treating this as a hate crime as only the Muslim section of gravestones were attacked. This sort of mindless, racist behaviour must be utterly condemned and I’m sure the whole community will be outraged.”

Manchester Evening News, 2 October 2009

See also the Hope Not Hate blog, where Nick Lowles comments: “Coming just a week before the planned EDL protest in the city, this horrendous act has either been carried out to whip up tensions or is the consequence of the current wave of Islamophobia.”