Glasgow Muslim family reveal torment of racist abuse

The news website Glasgow Live reports on the torment of a Pakistani family who have suffered ongoing racist abuse.

Shahad Ishaq told the paper he and his wife Shahnaz were at the “end of their tether” after a campaign of abuse over the last six months failed to be taken seriously by the police despite frequent complaints about criminal damage and racist abuse.

Mr Ishaq said the trouble started a couple of years ago when he noticed damage to his car allegedly caused by two young boys from a neighbouring family playing football near his car.

Mr Ishaq said he asked the young boys to stop and the incidents of abuse began. He said the windows of his home were smashed and his wife abused as the young boys allegedly made “monkey chants” at her and shouted “c’mon P**i, c’mon P**i”, when she tried to chase them away.

Mr Ishaq said when he reported the incident to the police, he was told nothing could be done because the alleged offenders were too young but that police would speak to the parents to resolve the issue.

Mr Ishaq said when he attempted to speak to the father of one of the young boys to address the problem, his efforts were rebuffed. He said: “I was very polite and I said ‘excuse me sir your son is basically tormenting us, he has been giving us monkey chants, racially abusing us and even smashing our windows and all I ask is that you please ask him to stop’.

“I never got an apology or a single word from the father, just a dirty look as if to say ‘I will show you what racism is’.”

Mr Ishaq said the incidents of abuse and harassment only escalated further after that. On one occasion when his elder children were visiting, his daughter’s car was damaged and the windows of his house smashed but the police failed to register a racial aspect to the crime report.

The next day, yet another incident occurred. He said, “My wife was in the car waiting on me coming out the house and they came right up and said to ‘her go back home you black smelly P**i bastard, go back to your own country’.

“So I ran outside and said to them go away now and get lost, you have already smashed my windows what more do you want? They just started giving me more racist abuse and one of them threw a stone right at my face.”

Mr Ishaq who has lived in the area for 12 years, said he feared for his livelihood as an Uber driver given the constant damage to his car. He also said his wife often called him at work to notify him of ongoing abuse and harassment. He said “Every time I go back home my wife is in tears because of what is happening, sometimes I have customers in my car and she phones me screaming saying they are throwing stones at the windows again and attacking the house asking me what she should do.”

Mr Ishaq blasted the police response to his family’s torment. After his most recent call to the police following yet another incident, he said “The police never came at all because it was no big danger and no one is being killed at the moment, it was as if they were thinking it was only a Pakistani family getting racially abused and victimised so no big deal.”

His neighbours silence in the face of his family’s suffering has also troubled Mr Ishaq. “I have lived in Scotland since I was 12, I am Scottish, I feel Scottish, I vote the SNP and I am proud to be Scottish.

“No one should have to put up with this abuse,” he said.

The news report contains no comment from Police Scotland about the abusive behaviour endured by the Ishaq family or any explanation as to the perceived inaction by officers in prosecuting alleged offences.