A Glider bus driver and Syrian national says his family were forced out of their home after a two-year campaign of intimidation which led to a race hate attack on Sunday night.
Torki Al Omare was at home with his wife and three children aged 11, 9 and 7 on Sunday night in Holywood when a group of masked youths attacked their home with stones, breaking windows and causing minor injuries to two of the children.
Police are treating the incident on Church Green as a racially motivated hate crime.
Mr Al Omare and his family have since moved out of their property and the bus driver says he will not return to the local area and plans to move his wife and children to west Belfast.
He told the Irish News that relations between his family and a number of residents of the Holywood housing estate had not been good in the two years since they moved in.
Mr Al Omare and his family moved to Northern Ireland nine years ago.
Residents leave their home after its windows were smashed and the property was vandalised with a substance in an overnight racist attack on Church Road, Holywood. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN
“This has been going on for the last two years,” he said.
“People in the estate attacked us, they spoke about religion and skin colour. They hit my wife because she was wearing a hijab.
“I was told not to let my children play in the estate and that we were not welcome here.
“The children are feeling very bad, very scared.
“I will never go back to that house or to Holywood or east Belfast because I don’t feel safe there.
“I feel safer in west Belfast and I hope to be there soon.”
Mr Al Omare said he had reported various incidents of alleged intimidation and abuse to the PSNI on at least 16 occasions in the last two years.
He added that one young person had threatened one family member that they would “kill your family”.
Footage of an altercation between members of his family and a number of other individuals in Holywood was shared on social media on Sunday, including accounts associated with anti-immigration networks.
He said his daughter had experienced “severe psychological distress” as a result of the incident.
Mr Al Omare’s wife Saja said she believes the attack on their home on Sunday night was “planned in advance”.
“No family should ever have to experience such fear, violence and intimidation simply for trying to keep their children safe,” she said.
The PSNI have described the attack on the family home as “utterly unacceptable and has no place in our society”.
The force said it had received a second report of a connected attack on a home on the same night. Two windows were smashed at the property while a quantity of cash was also stolen in the second attack.
“We are treating both of these reports as racially-motivated hate crimes, with our enquiries continuing into what happened, and who was involved,” a spokesperson said.
“This type of crime is utterly unacceptable and has no place in our society. Everyone has the right to feel safe in their home, regardless of their race or background.”
Alliance MLA Andrew Muir has described the race hate attacks as “repugnant”.
“Holywood is a shared and inclusive place, and this kind of violence and intimidation does not reflect the views of the vast majority of people in the town who are absolutely appalled to see this occur,” the North Down MLA said.