Last Thursday, two asylum seeking children were stabbed by their fellow pupils at a Glasgow school. It made the Evening Times headlines, and even got a short mention on UK wide media. Interestingly though, a similar attack at another school in Glasgow passed by without media attention.

As to the reasons of this difference in treatment, I can only speculate. The incident on Thursday happened at a school which has a track record of successful integration of asylum seekers, active citizenship and campaign work. For one, the school and pupils must have been shocked that this could happen just there. And a school with good media contacts, and with pupils and parents used to speaking to the media, news are likely to travel faster.

Still, no serious fight is straight forward and the media coverage won't tell the whole story. Initially I was surprised that the stabbed children were significantly older than the alleged attackers, as I was surprised that the fight at the other school did not get mentioned in spite of its newsworthy potential (I won't disclose details simply because I don't think there's any benefit of doing this, suffice to say that the schools consider both attacks to indicate that there is a problem that needs to be addressed jointly).

Pupils and teachers seem to agree that the attacks indicate unresolved tensions, which may have a racist undercurrent, but which are by no means straight forward and simple. It is about background and clashes of background, but it may also be about jealousy, teenage angst and a general power struggle between very specific groups of people. This, as such, is normal and to a certain extent unavoidable, but of course the viciousness of the attacks (both used instruments that can cause severe physical harm) indicates that action is needed.

Maybe these attacks give us the opportunity to understand a struggles of identity, race and faith on a deeper level, by engaging with both perpetrators and victims, who in fact may both be either. However, the fact that the stabbing occurred at schools where this engagement has already been happening for over 5 years calls for new approaches and a questioning of the effectiveness of anti-racist work as we know it. Awareness raising and putting yourself into your asylum seeking classmates shoes isn't enough.

At the start of Islamic Awareness Week there will be initial opportunities, but it's not just about Islam and awareness, and it's certainly not about a week.