Unionist political and community leaders in Northern Ireland were today told to do more to halt racial attacks in their areas.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Mr Alex Maskey issued the call after an Asian family were targeted in a petrol bomb attack in a loyalist area of south Belfast.
At 2.20 a.m. yesterday, while a couple and their five-year-old daughter were sleeping, two petrol bombs hit a front bedroom window in the house on Fane Street. Firefighters put out the blaze which caused minor scorch damage. No one was injured but the family were badly shaken.
Police said they were investigating a possible racial motive. Locals said the intimidation of the family began during the July Twelfth celebrations.
Mr Maskey called on unionist political and community leaders to do more in their neighbourhoods to stop racist attacks.
The South Belfast MLA said: "Last night an Asian family whose home had been repeatedly attacked since the Twelfth period were petrol-bombed from their home in the Tates Avenue area.
"This is yet another disgraceful racist attack against a completely innocent family attempting to get on with building a life here.
"Unfortunately it is not the first such attack in south Belfast over the past 18 months.
"We have already witnessed a sustained campaign by unionist paramilitaries to drive ethnic minorities out of the Donegall Road-Sandy Row area."
Mr Maskey said attacks on ethnic minorities had stopped earlier this year following public pressure but were redirected against Catholics living in a nearby apartment block. He said the toleration of sectarian intimidation had sent out the signal to those behind racial attacks that those too would be tolerated.
"Sectarianism and racism are the two sides of the same coin and must be confronted with equal vigour if we are to build a truly inclusive city," he said. "That is a challenge for all of us, but I have to say particularly for many unionist political leaders at this time."
Nationalist SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said the return of racial attacks was a cause for grave concern and he urged all sections of society to confront those responsible.
The South Belfast MLA said: "It is hardly a coincidence that the attacks on this family began when the tensions of sectarianism, our local variant of racism, were at their height. This attack brings shame on our city and our community ... those who do this type of thing seem to think they are representatives acting on behalf of a wider community.
"It is vitally important that genuine representatives, whether publicly elected or leaders of less formal groupings, should stand forth and speak with a loud voice.
"They should tell the petrol-bombers they represent nobody but themselves and serve no good purpose," said Mr McDonnell