‘We want to stop kids stabbing each other’: The Birmingham mosque fighting back against violent crime

From producing an award-winning documentary to using Friday prayers to address the issue of knife crime, one mosque is setting the standard for how communities can take a stand. Jon Bloomfield reports

‘A Mother’s Story’ sheds light on the lives of knife crime’s unseen victims (Bahu Trust)

The hall is packed and the room buzzing. There’s lots of chatter; a few kids are charging around. The local great and the good are here: the mayor, MPs and councillors, church leaders and police chiefs, as well as ordinary men and women of all ages. Yet, it is a serious occasion.

The Bahu Trust mosque has brought 150 people together from across the local community to launch its campaign against the violence that stalks inner-city Birmingham, focusing in particular on the issues of knife crime and domestic abuse. There is no doubting the salience of the issue. A nasty mix of violent crime disfigures the lives of tens of thousands of people across urban Britain.

Over the previous four months there have been 269 stabbing incidents in Birmingham and 800 young people have been caught with knives. Domestic abuse is more hidden and takes many forms – common assault, battery, coercive behaviour – but the local police have recorded a sharp rise in reported incidents over the past two years, reaching 1,400 in 2019. Across the west midlands since 2014 the number of domestic offence reports has doubled and domestic abuse now accounts for 14 per cent of all crime. For many Asian women there is the additional uncertainty of not knowing if they will get support from within their community if they report incidents.