VIDEO: First Muslim woman to head Oldham City Council targeted in arson attack

Gulf Today Report

British authorities are investigating an arson attack on the car of Oldham City Council President Arooj Shah, the first Muslim woman of Pakistani origin to hold this position in the north of the country, according to British media.  

Greater Manchester Police said in a statement, "Security personnel were called at 1:30am on Tuesday following reports of a car fire in the Glodwick area of Oldham.

The authorities continued, "The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Department attended, along with the police, and it was established that the car had been set on fire on purpose, which also caused minor damage to the property of the neighbour.   

"The fire was extinguished, no one was injured, and the circumstances are being investigated."

Politicians, who described it as a cowardly act, condemned the attack.

Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West and Royton, said, "I sympathise with Shah, she was targeted in such a heinous way…"

Howard Sykes, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House, described the incident as "horrific and frightening, and shows the danger that threatens people in public life, and prevents decent people from engaging in it."

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said, "This was a despicable and cowardly attack on Shah, the first Muslim woman leader in Oldham Council. She has the full support of the working-class family, from her colleagues in Oldham House to MPs across the country.”

Shah lived in Glodwick, one of the poorest places in England, after her parents moved to Britain from Pakistan to work in the textile industry in the late 1960s.

She pledged when she was elected president of Oldham Council last May, to continue the fight against racism and misogyny.