Newmarket Muslims – Tipping Point

One of the first stories that I followed up when I went freelance in 2009 was the issues that the Muslim community in the Suffolk town of Newmarket were facing due to an exponential increase in the population.

Muslims pray in a Newmarket community centre.

Admittedly on the face of it this story seemed like a non-starter, let’s face it hundred’s of immigrant communities around the country are already struggling for space with the indigenous population.

The reason for the sudden increase in the Muslim population is solely down to the sport of horse racing. For several years now young Muslim men from the Indian sub-continent have come across to train as riders in the industry.
Ahsan Mohammed chairman of the Newmarket Mosque committee believes “the muslim community is set to explode when the wives and children of the young jockey’s become eligible to live here in the UK”.

Ahsan Mohammed - Chairman of Newmarket Mosque Committee.

When this story first appeared in the local newspaper, naturally the far-right felt compelled to jump on board, there websites and forums lighting up with scaremongering posts warning anyone without the intelligence not to listen that we were all doomed and we should prepare for a “re-run of 1960′s Bradford”.

Racism aside, there was a deeper story to be told, the very source of modern day horse racing directly descends from the Arabian breed. Through hundreds of years of war and trading between eastern and western cultures the Arab horse has come to represent the power and beauty of horse racing in the United Kingdom, for me it seems a quaint twist of irony that the very culture that brought The Sport of Kings to the world should not have a home in Newmarket – a quiet Suffolk town, widely regarded as the global centre for thoroughbred racing.

As a photographer from an editorial / news background I have always tried to capture the essence of a story in a single image, trying to come up with that image for this job was no easy task and I distinctly remember over a period of 2-3 days struggling with that task.

The Newmarket Muslim Community pray in a community centre room previously used for a 'Baby Yoga' class.

Rising early one morning in the hope of capturing the young Muslim riders on the arduous training slopes at Newmarket, I was busy away gathering audio and general views when I hit on the idea of getting a relatively tight shot of a rider in full racing regalia.
I will be the first to admit that the following shot was not intended, in fact it was only during the edit did the composition truly jump out at me.

That split second of time as the riders eyes were closed changes the feel of the image from one of frantic concentration to an almost peaceful, prayer like moment.

A Muslim horse rider appears to pray as he trains at Newmarket

Tipping Point – Newmarket Muslims from Matt Kirwan on Vimeo.