Fear grips UK’s Muslim communities as race riots spread across the country

Fear gripped Muslim communities across the UK on Sunday after far-right riots and Islamophobic attacks spread to more cities, days after deadly stabbings in the town of Southport were was falsely attributed to Muslims.

For a fourth consecutive night, riots took place in several cities including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Sunderland, Belfast and Hull, after three children were killed and eight others seriously wounded after a frenzied stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

The 17-year-old charged with the murders has since been named as Axel Rudakubana, a teenager who was born to Christian Rwandan parents in Cardiff in 2006 and moved to the village of Banks in Lancashire in 2013.

Although the suspect is under the age of 18, which typically means he would be granted anonymity, Judge Andrew Menary KC said he decided to make his name public as he had to balance the risk to the suspect’s family with the public interest accurately reporting his identity.

On Saturday afternoon, violent scenes erupted in several cities across England and northern Ireland, with videos from Hull appearing to show an Asian man being attacked by a mob of white men blaming Muslims and immigrants for the killings. 

Similar scenes unfolded in Bristol and Manchester where Black men walking by themselves were attacked by groups of masked white men. 

Videos posted on social media from Manchester appeared to show a Sainsbury’s Local supermarket being forced to shut after it was stormed by rioters who stole items including bottles of wine and cans of beer.

In Leeds, around 150 people, most men, could be seen carrying St George’s Cross flags and shouting “you’re not English any more,” whilst hundreds of counter-protesters, greatly outnumbering the mob, could be heard saying: “Nazi scum off our streets.”

‘The government is right to speak out against the extremism witnessed on our streets, but it has been silent on the Islamophobia fueling that extremism’

– Zara Mohammed, MCB

Later, other videos shared on social media showed balaclava-clad youths throwing bricks and other missiles such as fireworks and flares at police, while shops were looted.

Following the attacks, groups of Muslims could be seen gathering to defend mosques and other places of worship from the far-right rioters.

In footage posted online showed, many of the Muslims could be heard saying that they were only out on the streets to support the work of the police, and would not initiate attacks against the far-right mobs.

The violence, which has seen scores of arrests across England and put Britain’s Muslim community on edge, presents the biggest challenge yet of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s month-old premiership.

It has also put hard-right agitators linked to football hooliganism in the spotlight at a time when anti-immigration elements are enjoying some electoral success in British politics.

Starmer has accused “thugs” of “hijacking” the nation’s grief to “sow hatred” and pledged that anyone carrying out violent acts would “face the full force of the law,” but his administration has been accused of failing to reach out to British Muslim community leaders and groups.

‘Unchecked Islamophobia’

So far, much of the condemnation has been targeted at figures such as Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, for fuelling the violence on X.

Merseyside police believe that supporters of the English Defence League (EDL), the far-right group previously led by Robinson, were responsible for injuring more than 50 officers and terrorising Muslim worshippers during the riot in Southport.

In several videos posted on X, Robinson has publicly legitimised the disorder and railed against Muslims to his 800,000 followers. Robinson was previously banned on X, then known as Twitter, but was reinstated in November after Musk bought the platform.

On Friday, Musk engaged with Robinson on X, hours after Starmer warned that social media “carries responsibility” for tackling misinformation. Musk responded with two exclamation marks to a post by Robinson who was commenting on the prime minister’s response to the disorder.

Following the rioting, there has also been condemnation of MP Nigel Farage’s role in inciting the violence after he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us.”

Robert Jenrick, one of the favourites in the Tory leadership race, said that the Reform leader’s comments did not “make the situation better.”

Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly was also criticised for issuing a statement in which he said Starmer taking the knee had sent “completely the wrong message” to protesters, adding that there was “never a justification for disorder like this.”

In a statement late on Saturday, Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said hundreds of mosques were toughening their security after far-right mobs “terrorised Muslim communities” triggering “anxiety and fear.”

“What we saw on the streets of Britain [is] the consequence of unchecked Islamophobia: acceptable, potent, and very real in our society today,” Zara Mohammed, the secretary General of the MCB, said in a statement.

“The government is right to speak out against the extremism witnessed on our streets, but it has been silent on the Islamophobia fueling that extremism.”