“The UDA dress this up as an anti-Muslim thing but it’s all about money; whatever the reason the people behind this business are not playing ball,” said our source.
The criminal gang dressed up the attack as an anti-immigration act but the Sunday World can reveal that the fledgling business was facing ‘protection’ payments of £250 a month.
The attackers threw paint over the shutters of the business in the lower part of Sandy Row, dressing it up as an attack on Muslim businesses.
Sandy Row hosts a number of Islamic businesses including a halal butchers and an Asian supermarket, all within a stone’s throw of the Rangers Supporters Club and the infamous Royal Bar which is festooned with Israel flags.
The vacant building across the street from the Asian business was daubed with anti-immigration slogans.
Loyalist sources have told the Sunday World the UDA is bringing in more than £5,000 a month in protection payments on Sandy Row alone.
Well-placed sources have told us that the Asian restaurant owners were confronted by men claiming to be from the UDA and demanding “security money”.
Work is ongoing at the site so it is not generating any income. Last week pink paint was thrown over the premises’ shutters and, according to locals, work has stopped at the site.
Two skips sit outside, piled high with the rubble dragged out of the premises.
There is now a question mark over the future of the business, which would have provided employment for the economically deprived area.
The would-be restaurant is surrounded by empty units.
“The UDA dress this up as an anti-Muslim thing but it’s all about money; whatever the reason the people behind this business are not playing ball,” said our source.
“They [UDA] don’t care about religion, it’s all about money, pure and simple, the age-old practice of protection rackets is alive and well.”
Last year a businessman whose new Belfast grocery store was subjected to four racially-motivated attacks in two weeks has said he would move his business.
Ahmad Alkhamran came to Northern Ireland from Syria seven years ago, fleeing the war, and worked to earn enough money to open his own store.
But his shop on Belfast’s Donegall Road was set on fire in an arson attack.
Residents living in flats above the business had to be led to safety.
Police said the attack was the fourth incident at the same premises within the space of two weeks and they were treating them all as racially-motivated hate crimes.
Speaking to BBC News NI, Mr Alkhamran said he could not understand why his shop had been targeted.
“It’s disappointing but we will keep going and hope to open the business somewhere else, but not here,” he said.
“I believe love will win, not racists.”
He explained that he worked as a taxi driver after he arrived in Northern Ireland and had been saving his wages to start his own grocery business.
“I have worked for four months, the shop was to open next week.
“I have saved for seven years — in just a few minutes it was all gone.”
The Sunday World understands attacks on immigrant-owned business are motivated by protection money rather than anti-asylum views.
Mr Alkhamran said his new store was badly damaged by the fire and much of his stock was ruined.
“Everything is damaged,” he added.
In one attack, shutters at the premises were spray-painted with graffiti. The message read: “Local houses an [sic] shops only.”
Mr Alkhamran said he had been made to feel welcome by most people he met in Northern Ireland, and said he believed it was only a small minority who opposed his new venture.