What is happening in the UK is so shocking to me...
I lived in England for over 7 years (in Bristol and London), and always felt it was less dangerous for minorities than the rest of Europe.
What a horrible evolution...
Protesters gesture at police officers during the 'Enough is Enough' demonstration
called by far-right activists in Bristol on August 3, 2024. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
Details here:
As the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is preparing to hold an emergency meeting with police chiefs this Monday, the days of violent anti-immigration protests are still intensifying.
Buildings and vehicles were torched and hotels holding asylum seekers targeted all over the weekend in different location.
Source: Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-starmer-hold-emergency-meeting-riots-intensify-2024-08-05/)
The violence erupted across towns and cities last week, after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport in northwest England.
The murders were seized on by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups as misinformation spread online that the suspected attacker was a radical Islamist who had just arrived in Britain. Police have said the suspect was born in Britain and are not treating it as a terrorist incident.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper said rioters had felt "emboldened by this moment to stir up racial hatred", with bricks thrown at police officers, shops looted and mosques and Asian-owned businesses attacked.
Over the weekend riots broke out in Liverpool, Bristol, Tamworth, Middlesbrough and Belfast, in Northern Ireland, with largely young men, covering their faces and draped in the British flags hurling rocks and shouting "Stop the Boats", a reference to migrants arriving on the south coast in recent years.
In Rotherham, northern England, protesters sought to break into a hotel that housed asylum seekers.
A police dog bites a protester in Bristol, southern England, on 3 August 2024
during the 'Enough is Enough' demonstration held in reaction to the fatal stabbings
in Southport on July 29. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
Online hatred
Online disinformation is largely to blame, amplified by high-profile figures for driving the violence, first and foremost Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who leads the anti-Islam English Defence League group.
He wrote: "They are lying to you all," for instance, and has been blamed by media for spreading misinformation to his 875,000 followers on the social network Twitter, re-branded X by new owner Elon Musk.
Musk himself weighed in on the violence.
Responding to a post that blamed mass migration and open borders for the disorder in Britain, he wrote: "Civil war is inevitable."
According to The Independent, Robinson has been accused of stoking far-right riots from afar, after he left the UK last week.
A High Court was told on Monday that the anti-Islam activist had indeed left the country after being released on unconditional bail following his arrest in Kent the previous weekend.
A fresh warrant was issued for the English Defence League (EDL) founder’s arrest after he did not attend a scheduled hearing in a contempt of court case.
“There is no doubt that Tommy Robinson’s social media is playing a really important role in these far-right demos,” a spokesperson for Hope Not Hate told The Independent.
Inaction?
Meanwhile, some have deplored the lack of response from the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, election on 4 July 2024.
Former Scottish leader Humza Yousaf has for instance called for decisive action, warning that the situation is spiralling out of control following widespread unrest across the UK.
"How much worse does it have to get before the army is sent in Keir Starmer?"
"The Police clearly do not have a handle on this situation. This pogrom against Muslims and People of Colour is going to cost lives unless these far-right thugs are stopped," Yousaf wrote on X, highlighting the urgency of the crisis.
Yousaf is a Muslim himself.
At least 100 people have been arrested still, after demonstrations organised by far-right groups descended into disorder across several towns and cities, including Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, and Belfast.
