It's cycled back around' Unrest a chilling reminder of the past - campaigners

The shoppers and shopkeepers of White Abbey Road in Bradford well remember a time almost 25 years ago when the street was engulfed in flames after a protest march against the National Front turned violent.

- Kaamil Ahmed

And on Brick Lane, east London, the British-Bangladeshi population remember the invisible lines they could not cross without being set upon by the far right.

For both communities, whose showdowns with racist groups came in different decades, the atmosphere in Britain today feels worryingly familiar, with far-right sentiment on the rise, stoked by some politicians.

"It feels like it has cycled back around," says Mohsin Shuja, 42, who works in a jewellery shop on White Abbey Road. As a teenager during the 2001 Bradford riots, he was involved in protests against the far right that descended into clashes with police.

This weekend there are due to be protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country - some organised by far-right groups - with counter-protests also planned. For people in Bradford and London, there are fears history could start to repeat itself.

Shuja thinks parts of the country could see unrest. "Not so much in Bradford - back then they stirred up something and that got dealt with, but since then I think cohesion is good. In other places though, definitely, especially smaller communities. They won't be able to defend themselves."

The riots in Bradford in 2001 were preceded by weeks of warnings that the far right was planning to target the city's south Asian population, and incidents of violence in other northern cities.