“I don’t remember feeling this unsafe”: Frightened worshippers too scared to walk the streets

“I don’t remember feeling this unsafe ever before,” says 76-year-old devout Sikh Resham Kaur who moved to the UK from India when she was 18.

She’s waiting for two men to walk her home from the gurdwara – a Sikh place of worship – at a time of rising fears over physical and verbal racial abuse.

Resham reaches for her walking stick and puts on her shoes.

“When I came to this country, I didn’t fear for my safety. But now I do – every day. It’s a lot worse now,” she says.

It’s a disturbing admission at a time when some fear Britain’s communities are more fragmented than ever.

It comes as new figures last week revealed religious hate crime recorded by police in England and Wales has reached a record high.

Two volunteers arrive, opening the exit door for Resham at the gurdwara in Smethwick in the West Midlands.

Sarbjit Singh – who works in a bakery – and Mangat Singh – who works at a salad farm – are part of the congregation and walk people to and from the gurdwara on their days off to keep them safe.

With attendance numbers at the gurdwara falling because of safety fears, Sarbjit says it’s something they need to do “until we get a bit of peace and tranquillity back in society and the community”.

“We have to do something. We can’t just sit in silence. And we can’t let the congregation just stay at home,” Sarbjit says.

Other groups of Sikh men are also taking action – joining patrols along a road in nearby Oldbury where a young Sikh woman was allegedly raped a few weeks ago.

That alleged attack – and an assault on two taxi drivers in Wolverhampton in August – have horrified the Sikh community. Police are treating both incidents as racially aggravated.

Monty Singh, who is taking part in the patrols, says they are “not vigilantes”.

“We need to make it crystal clear that we’re good people, we’re just trying to do the right thing and support our community,” Monty adds.

Pervinder Kaur is the vice president of the gurdwara.

She believes racial abuse is being emboldened after a summer of demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers and renewed debate about immigration.

“People are more verbal about it now. They are not scared of the consequences,” she said.

A sense of vulnerability is common among minority communities and security measures have also been stepped up at mosques around the country.

Imam Adam Kantar from the Rumi Mosque in Edmonton, north London, said: “Many people are now telling their children not to be outside after certain hours.

“Their [husbands], they prefer to go shopping instead of their hijab [wearing] wives and spouses.

“We have to engage with the wider community and prove that we love this country and its people. The Union Jack is our flag.”

What Britain’s fragmented society has in common is fear among minority communities – even if the causes are different.

Rabbi Josh Levy, the co-lead of Progressive Judaism, has spent years trying to advance interfaith dialogue.

He said: “Single individual(s) or small groups can cause a huge amount of pain and distress.

“There are lots of really great examples of community cohesion around the country. But generally, there is definitely a sense of fragmentation. And whether it’s driven by political concerns or what’s happening internationally.

“We’ve got huge work to do in taking the work that happens on a national level and bringing it into local communities.”