Widespread riots rocked the UK in the past week. [Picture: Getty Images]
There was brutality at an airport. Then a deadly stabbing incident. Lots of disinformation. Then full blown riots. All of this in the supposed heart of civilisation, the United Kingdom. The government there is now trying to quell far-right violence that has not spared mosques, asylum shelters and infrastructure.
Sending a “shock feeling” through the UK’s Muslim community, in the words of political commentator Abdul Wahid, the violence has seen clashes between rioters and police in areas like Plymouth, to the south, and Belfast in the northeast.
“People in the UK are not used to this kind of violence and thuggery and breakdown in social order. They’re just not used to it,” said Wahid in an interview with Salaamedia on Tuesday.
The British government is trying to quell the violence that began a week ago following a knife attack on a children’s dance class in northwestern Southport that left three girls dead, reported Al Jazeera.
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Hate-filled narrative fuelling violence
Vowing “swift criminal sanctions” for those who crossed the line, PM Keir Starmer placed the blame on the far-right together with disinformation. But Wahid blamed the PM himself for jumping onto the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim bandwagon during the country’s recent election.
He accused mainstream politicians and media of painting “Muslims, immigrants and minorities” as a “problem” that needed to be removed. No less the Labour Party’s Starmer than any other mainstream politician.
“He started using the same rhetoric about migrants, talking about migrants coming from Bangladesh to be sent back, when actually statistically migrants coming from Bangladesh to the UK are very low in number.”
This kind of rhetoric, he claimed, directly roused racists within UK society and instigated the bedlam currently unfolding on the island’s streets. Nearly 400 people have been arrested since the violence broke out a week ago.
“It was very much seen as what they call dog whistle politics, where he was saying this word ‘Bangladesh migrants should be sent back’ which was a signal to that same audience of racist people in the UK making this community a problem,” he said.
“You can trace this back to Tony Blair, David Cameron, Teresa May, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and their ministers; all making this problem. They have made this toxic, explosive cocktail and then you have agitators online … that start talking in terms after this tragedy last week.”
On Tuesday, justice minister Heidi Alexander said social media companies had a “moral responsibility” to prevent disinformation from spreading on their platforms.
“The idea that you can sit behind a computer screen or sit behind the screen of your mobile phone and somehow think that that protects you from the law is for the birds,” she told Sky News.
