UK far-right riots: Islamophobic, racist and anti-immigration

Muslims, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities are fearing for their lives as followers of the far-right capitalise on the murder of three young girls to attack mosques, temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, members of the public and the police. This has all unfolded over the course of just a week, but some of the root causes of this violence are far older.

The catalyst was the shocking knife attack by a 17-year-old on a dance class in Southport in Merseyside on Monday 29th July. It resulted in the deaths of Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9), as well as the attempted murder of ten others. Misinformation about the identity of the attacker from a variety of sources led to far-right rioters attacking a mosque and the police in the town the following day, with a police van set alight and officers injured. Extraordinarily, restrictions preventing the naming of the 17-year-old were lifted by the Liverpool Crown Court, partly because of the misinformation around his identity.

Elsie’s mother called on the rioters to “stop the violence,” describing the police as “nothing but heroic” since the attack and that they and the police “don’t need this”. But sadly, this was just the beginning. An “Enough is Enough” rally was held in London on 31st July, promoted by both Tommy Robinson and Lawrence Fox in response to the knife attack in Southport. Hundreds of people largely men took to Downing Street, chanting far-right slogans like “stop the boats” and “we want our country back”. Officers of the Metropolitan Police were accused of being “traitors,” with bottles and abuse being hurled their way. Many in the rally were carrying English and British flags, others with bottles and glasses of beer in their hands.

Far-right organisations and individual influencers began to call for “protests” to be held across the country on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th August, with at least 25 to be held by the far-right and 5 by anti-racist counter-protesters. The police in places like Southport and Bristol have been bestowed with enhanced powers to deal with the outbreaks of violence, namely to stop and search suspects and to move on those who are likely to cause harm. The nascent Labour government also announced a new National Violent Disorder programme to reduce the violence, using police capabilities to share intelligence across the country to ensure arrests are made, local insight and data to understand where criminals are operating and facial recognition technology. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “let’s be very clear about this. It’s not a protest. It’s not legitimate. It’s crime and violent disorder. An assault on the rule of law and the execution of justice.”

There are many similarities between the so-called far-right “protests,” though the term “riot” seems more appropriate for those which have descended into violence and tyranny. A significant amount of the hatred has been aimed at Muslims, in part because fake news alleged that the Southport attacker was a Muslim. In addition to the one in Southport, two mosques were attacked in Liverpool, as was an Islamic Centre in Belfast. The use of Islamophobic slurs and rhetoric by the far-right have also been reported across the country.

Islamophobia is inherently tied to broader anti-immigration sentiment and racism, with many anti-Muslim hate crimes perpetuated because of the race of the victim. It was also alleged in the fake news that the Southport attacker was a recent asylum seeker, and so temporary asylum accommodation sites have been attacked by mobs with projectiles in Rotherham,Manchester, Aldershot and Tamworth. Arrests have been made for violence and attempts to encourage racial hatred.

But it would be wrong to suggest that all of this violence and racism boils down to the fake news around the Southport attacker’s identity. If this fake news was spread with the knowledge that it was indeed false, it should be described as disinformation. In this case, the Southport attack was undeniably used to garner hatred and violence towards Muslims, ethnic minorities, migrants and asylum seekers. There is no rational argument to be made that these riots can somehow be explained away as attempts to get justice for the three girls, the loss of whom has been unjustly overshadowed.

The Right Response Team at Hope Not Hate (an organisation which monitors racism and fascism in the UK with a view of challenging it) has suggested that Southport was merely the “trigger,” with the events planned for the weekend “expressive of a wider hostility to multiculturalism, anti-Muslim and anti-migrant prejudice, as well as a visceral streak of populist anti-government sentiment”. It also stated that the events reflect the “post-organisational nature of the modern far-right”.

While acknowledging the role of leaders associated with the English Defence League (EDL), the team stated that the far-right lacks formal leaders, relying instead on figureheads and social media influencers, particularly Tommy Robinson. After holding a mass rally in Trafalgar Square on 27th July, he fled the UK before he was due in court over alleged contempt of court proceedings, after he made a film repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee, which originally led to a libel case that he lost in 2021. The National discovered Robinson lounging at a 5-star resort in Cyprus while rioters egged-on by his rhetoric engaged in violence across the UK.

Leader of the Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, responded to the Southport attack by suggesting that the country was “unhappy with the state of law and order” and that there are “questions… Was this guy being monitored by the security services?” He further cast doubt over claims that this was non-terror related, asking “whether the truth is being withheld from us” before raising his hands and saying “I don’t know,” but that it was a “fair and legitimate question.” Given his influence as an elected MP with 2 million followers on X, this would have contributed to the conspiracy theories surrounding the Southport attack, distrust towards the police and anti-government populism.

This Islamophobia, anti-immigration sentiment and racism was sadly a mark of this year’s general election campaigning, particularly by Farage himself and the wider Reform UK party, through which it managed to secure five seats. Party leaders repeatedly blamed immigration for the poor state of public services and suggested that young British Muslims were opposed to ‘British values.’

Though the far-right would have us believe that torching hotels accommodating asylum seekers and a library in Liverpool, requiring the use of extra police resources and reconstruction, is an adequate response to this. Reform UK came third in terms of vote share after Labour and the Conservatives, yet won fewer seats than the Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party and Sinn Féin because of the UK’s first-past-the-post system. This has likely exacerbated the sense of disillusionment among the supporters of Reform UK towards the government and other political parties.

But the Conservative party likewise has its share of the blame, with an inquiry having been conducted into Islamophobia and racism within the party; completed in May 2021. Regardless, it has since spearheaded policies that no doubt contributed to this anti-immigration and xenophobic sentiment, especially in light of its (thankfully) binned Rwanda scheme to deport asylum seekers to the country for processing. The former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, seemed dead-set on making the scheme a reality, despite challenges in the courts and the many, many concerns raised by human rights groups. One of Sunak’s home secretaries, Suella Braverman, demonised the British Pakistani community by suggesting that there was a “predominance” of that ethnic group among grooming gangs (though research shows such gangs are most commonly white), used dehumanising language about migration and referred to largely peaceful Palestine solidarity protests as “hate marches.” This can all be summarised as attempts to solidify support of the right within the Conservative Party itself.

While the state of things is a major cause for concern, our communities have come together against the far-right out of love and respect for one another. In Liverpool, a diverse group stood in front of a mosque as another group approached it, with one lady carrying a “Nans against Nazis” sign. Others were able to defuse tension by engaging in dialogue with protestors, including an imam called Adam Kelwick, who gave out food and said he would arrange a forum to discuss the issues concerning them. Hundreds of people stood in front of a hotel in Bristol that houses asylum seekers as an anti-immigration group marched towards it. The community in Sunderland came together to clean up the streets after rioting resulted in a police station being set on fire. These are the people who are truly proud of this country.

The author is a post-doctoral researcher and writer with interests relating to Pakistan, Islamophobia and South Asia diasporas in the UK.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.