Your article (Nine terror suspects all from same small area of city, 25 January) characterised Moss Side in Manchester, “formerly known for gang culture”, as now a breeding ground for “jihadis”.

For years, Moss Side has tried to resist harmful labels which often decontextualise the history of fraught relations, defined by racism and profiling, between the police and local people – whether it is the disproportionate stop-and-search and criminalisation of young black men (the latter through the controversial joint enterprise laws), or the harassment of Somali cafes on Claremont and Princess Road.

The article’s use of the “gang” and “terrorist” labels reflects the criminalisation of black and Asian Mancunians. A recent study found that BMEs were overrepresented on Manchester’s “gang database” (89%) yet only represented 23% of those who had committed serious offences, and that many of those on the gangs list were not even members of “gangs”. The gang label is devoid of value, though not devoid of damage. Young black men are acutely aware of the perception portrayed by the media and its detrimental impact.

As for the Asian/Muslim population, the sentiments of one of the interviewees who said “It is telling that one of those quoted in the article says that what is pulling these youngsters toward terrorism is something he does not understand”, is telling. The government’s misunderstanding has been to claim that radicalisation is the main cause of terrorist violence. Often known as the “conveyor belt theory”, it states that extreme interpretations of belief systems offer the best explanations for why people commit acts of violence. This has been largely discredited by most mainstream academics as it ignores the role of structural violence: racism, poverty, vulnerability, foreign interventions etc – often the products of state policy.

Your article ignores the underinvestment of social and public services in the community. Moss Side is often presented as responsible for many of society’s ills, and your article pathologises its residents. It oversimplifies what causes terrorism and “gang violence”, castigating an area with a rich spirit and fantastic people who have to continually answer the charge of its imagined criminality.

Akemia Minott Moss Side youth worker, Dr Tanzil Chowdhury Northern Police Monitoring Project, Patrick Williams Criminologist and doctoral researcher, MMU

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