The tranquil scene at Maxwell Square in Glasgow, belies the media-portrayed image of a gang-war torn ghetto. Picture: CHRIS JAMES
AT the Maxwell Square playpark in the heart of Glasgow's Pollokshields, young mothers relaxed as they watched their children play yesterday, while a group of youths basked nearby in the sunshine.
A far cry from a gang-ridden ghetto were people are afraid to walk the streets, as the area was portrayed in the media this week.
Police said there was no evidence of gang warfare between Asian youths - despite a car bombing incident at the weekend which injured a fireman and which was linked to feuding youths.
Beneath the surface, however, tensions are simmering in the tight-knit Muslim community, and local leaders admit that trouble may reach boiling point this summer.
As police prepared to meet local representatives to discuss the problems today, a source in the community said there were no gangs and that recent violent incidents were a feud between two families over the son of one family being involved with the daughter of another.
Another source, however, said that territorial tensions were developing because a group of youths from the nearby Cessnock area were going into Pollokshields with a view to creating trouble.
A police spokesman said: ''There is no suggestion whatsoever - in fact, it is a gross misrepresentation of the situation - to say there is gang warfare.''
Meanwhile, in Maxwell Square, there was anger among the youths at being labelled as gangster hoodlums. They claimed they were no different to young people anywhere else.
One said: ''Yes, we've got cars and sometimes we hang about outside our cars. But they're our cars - we worked hard to buy them, we didn't steal them, so what are we doing wrong?''
Of allegations that drug dealing and carrying offensive weapons was common in the area, a 20-year-old said: ''Look around. Does it look like people can't walk the streets. This is a community, everybody knows everybody else.
''There's no more trouble here than anywhere else, but a couple of things happen and they make out that we're all thugs in gangs. This isn't a gang, we are just friends. What's wrong with hanging out with your friends?''
Groups of youngsters hanging around on street corners are always labelled as gangs, but it is clear from the youths at Maxwell Square that there is little else to do in Pollokshields but hang around.
Prominent community figure Imran Khand, director of the Pollokshields Youth Counselling Service, said this was at the heart of the problem.
''Like everywhere else, there is a hard element which is involved in drugs and knives, but these others are just young, decent people with nothing to do. We hear from young Asians that they can't play football on the local pitches because they get chased off by gangs of white youths.
''When the days get longer and the nights warmer, violent incidents tend to increase. Our intelligence from sources in the community is that this summer could be particularly bad.''
However, there are problems and frustrations among Asian youth which go deeper than having nothing to do. According to sources in the community, the younger generation are suffering an identity crisis - excluded from white society yet Westernised to an extent which alienates them from the traditions of their parents.
Mr Khand said: ''There is a problem of identity. There is not only a generation gap but in many ways a culture gap as well.''
Local MP Muhammed Sarwar, who has been involved in talks with local leaders and the police, and hopes to attend today's meeting, said: ''What we traditionally do in our community when there is trouble is to get together and sort out the differences, and that is why we are having these meetings.''
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