Anti-Muslim graffiti sprayed on Ironman triathlon route in Bolton

Bolton News draws attention to Lancashire County Council’s failure to completely remove anti-Muslim graffiti from part of the Ironman triathlon bike route in the town. The graffiti, previously reported in the Lancashire Telegraph, Burnley and Pendle Citizen and on Islamophobia Watch, was written among supportive messages aimed at competitors taking part in the Ironman Triathlon in Bolton.

Anti-Muslim messages which have been painted onto the route include the words “Muslims mutilate the innocent”.

The graffiti is believed to have been written before the race with several athletes saying that they encountered it as they cycled over the route.

While the Lancashire Telegraph and Burnley and Pendle Citizen note that the police are searching for those responsible for the anti-Muslim messages, Bolton News observes that initial attempts by Lancashire County Council to remove the graffiti was unsuccessful.

Andrew Burrows, from Lancashire County Council, stated: “We had cleaned off the offensive graffiti paint, but unfortunately, some of the words can still be seen in the now clean outline from where the letters have been removed on the road surface. We’ll carry out some further work to ensure the offensive words cannot be made out.”

Local resident Craig Rotherham, 46, expressed: “I came across a highways lorry with an industrial jet wash attacked to the back, but not even an industrial pressure washer made any impact on the graffiti — if anything they have made it look worse.”

While there are also non-offensive messages in support of Ironman competitors on the roads too, Burrows further confirmed that these will not be removed.

 

Bolton has seen a fair deal of far right agitation in recent weeks with a mosque planning application attracting BNP protests and the council meeting discussing the proposal being disrupted by anti-mosque protestors.