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Intolerance in Northern Ireland: Religion, and Now Race

The young couple from China were sitting in front of the television set in their newly rented row house in South Belfast, just before Christmas, when they heard glass shatter. They looked up to see two men standing in their living room with bricks in their hands. One of them battered the Chinese man’s face repeatedly. When his wife, nine months pregnant, ran to help, they punched her in the face and tossed her to the ground. Then the men demanded money. The attack drew a crowd of curious neighbors, who watched the men walk out of the couple’s home. “The men got nervous and left,” said the 31-year-old wife, who with her husband and new baby is now homeless and living rent-free at the Balfour Hotel here. The woman, fearful of more violence, requested anonymity. “Everyone just watched them walk out. Nobody did anything.” Full Story