The aftermath of the far-right violence in Rotherham was a “harsh reminder of how fragile progress can be” according to a South Yorkshire charity.

Yesterday (December 5) community leaders gathered at Bramall Lane Stadium to discuss how to move forward following the riots of earlier this year.

The Sheffield based charity FURD, Football Unites Racism Divides, hosted a conference called Uniting Our Streets and Communities.

The non-profit organisation has been a driving force of inclusion for over 30 years, helping refugees and asylum seekers foster a sense of belonging.

Co-CEO of FURD, Mehrun Ahmed, said: “Here in Sheffield, and across the north, we’ve built relationships within and between our communities. We’ve seen solidarity and shared joys and achievements, and yet this summer was a harsh reminder of how fragile progress can be.”

Just three months ago, a far-right mob descended on the Manvers Holiday Inn housing migrants. Sentiments at the conference showed just how raw and pertinent the violence in Rotherham remains. 

Councillor Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “What I saw was far right hate and thuggery playing out on our streets. I saw anti-Muslim hate. It’s really important, I think, to name exactly what happened.”

Abtisam Mohamed, MP for Sheffield Central drew on her own fear, calling her position as a Muslim woman and a political figure “an extremely dauting experience”.

Alongside recognising the terror and damage caused by the riots, the conversation was underpinned by the systemic issues that contributed to far-right anger and the increasingly marginalised space occupied by people of colour. 

Cllr Hunt went on to say: “The far right tapped into enormous reservoirs of discontent in some communities, people who were frankly suffering after 14 long years of underfunding for their communities.”

Ms Mohamed, said: “We need to have a government accountability that will address these areas and try to resolve them and I’m confident that people can work on some of these issues, because we can’t keep scapegoating minorities for problems in society.”

For local leaders the deprivation of areas targeted by rioters over the summer illustrated the need to repair communities in crisis.

Cllr Hunt said: “Community cohesion is something that we need to live and breathe all the time, to seek to bring people together, and communication is extremely hard to do when people have not got the right opportunities that they want to be able to thrive.”

Ms Mohamed took a moment to maintain that the Sheffield community should not be defined by the riots.

She said: “I took heart, [however], from the very big show of solidarity in Sheffield, and the number of people who did come out to say, this isn’t in our name.”