The UK’s anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic wave
https://arab.news/85rbu
It is a crime to play with racism and Islamophobia in politics. For decades, too many examples have shown the human and social damage of this plague, which some people continue to shamelessly exploit for electoral gain. We still remember the hideous crime in London, Canada, in June 2021, when a man murdered four members of a Pakistani Muslim family, running them over with his pickup truck while they were out for a walk.
Three generations of the Afzaal family were killed: a 74-year-old grandmother, a couple of 46 and 44 years — an academic and a kinesitherapist — and their 15-year-old daughter. The victims were dressed in traditional Pakistani clothing, which was enough for the killer to identify them as “Muslim.” Nathaniel Veltman, 20, had one single motive: his hate for Muslims. Appalling. Uncontrollable. Incurable.
Many attacks against Muslims have occurred in Canada since the mosque shooting in Quebec City in 2017, when six worshippers perished. This was one of the worst attacks of its kind in a Western country, before the one in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, which left 51 dead and 50 wounded.
The Afzaals died in a country that is known for its tolerance and diversity, but Islamophobia has become widespread in Canada over the past few years, fueled by xenophobic nationalists and white supremacists. It is worth remembering that, in the Quebec City mosque attack in 2017, before committing his crime, the killer had fed his anti-Islamic hatred on social media and by learning about Donald Trump’s executive order blocking the entry into the US of nationals from seven Muslim countries. We can clearly see how the excessive use of Islamophobia in politics and on social media can turn an anonymous individual into a killer.
When a crowd is involved, an entire society is facing the danger of death. This is what happened on July 29 in Southport, a quiet, touristic seaside town in England, known for its dunes and golfers. An unspeakable tragedy. At around midday, a man entered a children’s dance hall and brutally attacked those inside with a knife.
Naming things wrongly only adds to the world’s misery.
Azouz Begag
Three girls aged 6 to 9 years were killed and 11 children injured, six of them critically. This was enough to traumatize the nation and, even more, all of humanity. People reported seeing bleeding children running away. Carnage. Shortly afterward, a 17-year-old male was arrested and taken into custody. The police stated that this attack was not linked to terrorism, that an investigation was underway and that, to prevent any hype, they were urging people not to speculate until the facts came out.
However, false information regarding the suspect spread like wildfire on social media. It was claimed that he was an “illegal migrant” (rhetoric dear to Trump’s current campaign). It gets worse: even before his identity was confirmed, lies were spread on the internet claiming that he was a Muslim seeking asylum, who had arrived in the UK by boat. These rumors were immediately blown out of proportion by articles and via Telegram, as well as by the far right.
The case was hence introduced into the political scene to ride the emotional wave. Personalities abroad passed the story on. American pro-Trump activists and Russians added fuel to the fire by sharing them on a large scale.
On X, Elon Musk himself wrote that a civil war was inevitable, while broadcasting suspicious videos. In reality, the arrested suspect was a young Briton, born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda, an African country with a Christian majority. Despite him being a minor, the judge insisted on releasing his name to the public on the streets to avoid any misinformation.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana was never an asylum seeker. He did not enter the country illegally by boat. He was not a Muslim. But it did not even matter. The day after this tragedy, about 200 rioters gathered outside a mosque in Southport, shouting “English ‘til I die” and hurling projectiles at the guards that were protecting it.
For several days, violent riots broke out in about 20 towns and cities. They were the worst in the UK since 2011. Mosques and shelters for asylum seekers were targeted. In Rotherham, near Sheffield, 700 people attacked a hotel housing asylum seekers. A mosque in Newtownards, near Belfast, was targeted by a Molotov cocktail and vandalized.
Three hundred people set fires, threw bricks and clashed with the police. They intended to fight with migrants and Muslims and, while they were at it, with the police who intervened to protect these “guilty undesirables.” Racial hatred was at its peak.
Many thousands of people protested against the riots in Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In London, 1,000 people gathered outside the headquarters of the anti-immigration party Reform UK. Immediately, the authorities took firm legal action against the rioters.
More than 1,000 people were arrested and 500 charged. In the mass were little boys, teenagers and elderly people, described by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a “gang of thugs.”
In Belfast, an 11-year-old was charged with the possession of Molotov cocktails, while two 12-year-olds threw projectiles at police officers in separate riots in England. It is absolutely staggering. These events revealed the depth of the social crisis affecting the UK’s less fortunate populations and, above all, the concomitant racism against “others.”
In England, seven of the 10 most troubled areas shaken by the riots are home to an above-average number of asylum seekers. The firm legal response has resulted in a period of calmness. Hundreds of rioters have appeared before the courts. Some of them face up to 10 years in prison.
Furthermore, Starmer warned those leaders who had inflamed the situation on social media that the law would take its course for them too. In court, a 19-year-old who had thrown projectiles during a riot in Hartlepool broke down in tears after being sentenced to 16 months in a young offenders’ institution. His attorney pleaded that he “had been dragged into a wave of madness.” A wave of madness? No. A wave of brutality? Yes. A wave of racism and Islamophobia. Naming things wrongly only adds to the world’s misery.
- Azouz Begag is a writer and former minister (2005-2007) and researcher in economics and sociology. He is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research. X: @AzouzBegag
