The global population is witnessing fresh and protesting news from around the world. Anti-immigratory protests are spreading like wildfire and the minorities of specific countries are being lashed out on violence across the globe. We have been observing that German Government has implemented severe actions against the Muslim minority communities and breaking down illegally constructed mosque and shrines which are alleged to be the gathering house of Jamat-e-Islam. The government claims that they have been housing Islamic radical protestors and tolerating unauthorized Islamic radical meetup centres and to safeguard their country’s future they are demolishing and eradicating the foreign asylum seekers or illegal migrants away from the country.
These similar actions of Germany can be seen in UK since the last few weeks and Netizens have been calling it ‘The Wake-up Protests’ and most of the Britishers are actively taking part in these protests.
How & When did the Riots Start ?
The civil unrest in the UK started when on July 29th, three girls named Bebe King(6), Elsie Dot Stancombe(7), Alice da Silva(9) were brutally stabbed to death by a 17 yr old boy named Axel Ruda Cubana at a Britney Spears theme inspired Dance Academy in Southport, UK. The Police then arrested the boy from a nearby village and he was sent for Court Martial. Netizens started spreading the word that the alleged murderer is an asylum seeker from a migrant country who had entered the UK by boat in 2023. But Intel from the courtroom revealed that Axel was born to a Rwandan migrant family in Wales. His parents migrated many years ago and have been staying in UK since then.
Despite of the Police’s requests not to spread unconfirmed news and false speculations, words spread from person to person and escalated in no time throughout the major cities of UK. The evening after which the alleged was arrested and presented at the court for his hearing, more than a thousand people attended for a vigil for the victims. Out of nowhere people started pelting bricks at a nearby local mosque
and started lashing out on the Police. They event set a police van on fire hurting more than 25 officers with severe burns and hits.
People started riots all over the country after Southport’s mosque attack. Most of the people were enraged with anti-muslim hatred and anti-immigrant hatred towards the asylum seekers and the Muslim minorities. Plymouth, Liverpool, Belfast, Sussex, Northern Ireland and others were the places where riots hit the most and turned into violence in no time. People have been attacking the mosques, vandalizing the migrant libraries, their shops and even their homes, setting vehicles on fire. Anti-racism protestors and peace seekers called them ‘thugs’, ‘racist elements’. The Police earlier said that, ‘The rioters have been making a huge negative impact on the country’s peace.’
A man’s head was stamped and crushed in South Belfast by the protestors. This is still being invested while the Police arrest and detain numerous in charges of vandalism, creating chaos and hurting others. The Police have released their statements regarding how protests were being planned. According to them, the protestors planned about the rallies on anti-immigration channels locally on telegram. They also have said that the violence was led by the members of the far-right group of the English Defence League (EDL). Southport’s protests and Belfast’s protests fuelled up by the protests in London, Hartlepool and Manchester in a matter of few hours. This rapidly increased throughout the week increasing attacks on mosques, hotels and houses of asylum seekers.
According to few news agencies including BBC, the protests were fuelled from each and every major regions of UK. The false claim of the accused being a Muslim migrant was spread to numerous followers of these influencers in matter of hours and were being agitated to come down to the streets and protest. The target audience were the commoners of the country and they were succeeding in hitting the soft spots of the emotionally raged britishers who were on the streets protesting to save future of their children and the nation’s before it become a minority led country.
Allegedly Stephen Yaxley Lennon a.k.a Tommy Robinson posted inflammatory messages to fuel up protesting sentiments in the people’s (his millions of social media followers) mind. All this was done while Tommy was at Cyprus on his Holidays. One of his associates on twitter as ‘Lord Simon’ publicly posted calls for protests nationwide.
Places where Riots took place and What has happened :-
Southport, Hartlepool, Manchester, London, Aldershot, Sunderland, Liverpool, Belfast, Nottingham, Bristol, Portsmouth, Hull, etc are those places hit by the protestors for mass protests. After the riots started, on August 8th, Thursday, The Chief of Police Federation Tiffany Lynch released a statement that more than 100 Police officers were injured half of which were hospitalized looking at the seriousness of the injuries.
Keeping in mind about the degree of violence the protestors have been creating, various countries and their External Affairs ministries had issued travel advisories asking people to restrict travel to The UK at the moment and the others who are staying in The UK at the moment and the others who are staying in The UK were urged not to participate in protests and to stay vigilant.
According to the testaments given by the Police to the PA news agency, the riots were mostly comprised of the local people influenced by the social media and randomly joining because of the raging anti-immigrant hatred.
‘Alongside the violent protestors, the masked locals and the common families wrapped with the St.George’s flag encouraged such pitiful act.’ says senior Police officer from Sunderland.
What happened in New Castle :-
Newcastle West End witnessed rallies around its streets showcasing the motive of unity and displaying act of Support to the communities that were being targeted in the anti-immigrant protests. According to reports, more than 3000 people summed up around Westgate road in anticipation. People in the protests claimed that they were an anti-fascist community and tolerated no racism in the country.
People raised concern over minorities being targeted regarding their religion and country of origin. They also state that the anti-immigrant protestors were going their way out of their country’s democratic and secularistic ideologies and targeting the minorities.
People say, ‘We all are Newcastle dwellers, originated here and we are here and we are here to show solidarity to the ones who feel afraid of the protests and all the targeting.
Timeline of how the Unrest Spread :-
30th JULY ---- The Police and mosque was attacked in violence on day after fatal knife attack.
31st July ---- The protestors started hailing just outside the Prime Minister’s residence i.e., 10th Downing Street in London.
2nd August---- Sunderland & Liverpool witness escalated violence including cars and buildings being set on fire outside Mosque.
3rd August---- Liverpool, Blackpool, Hull witnesses sever protests with numerous arrests.
4th August ---- Asylum seekers in a hostel in Rotherham were attacked along with riots stating in Middlesborough.
5th August ---- Petrol bombs thrown (Belfast), Attacks on Police (Plymouth), and Pubs damaged in Birmingham.
The counter-protestors claimed that, ‘they were not here for something like this, the actions that the anti-immigrant protestors have shown is absolutely barbaric and intolerable.’ They tried and succeeded in saving few asylum seeker’s residence by stopping the rival demonstrators from storming into those buildings.
The Police's response to the Riots :-
The Police claims that more than 600 arrests have been made by Friday 9th August, with more than people charged including minors and children as young as 11.
The newly elected Prime Minister of The UK has released a statement saying that he condemns for what the “far-right thuggery” has been doing and has promised charges and arrests of those who keep spreading the unrest around and those who “whips up these actions online”.
The Chief of Police has stated that they will need more than 500 new prison cells to ensure the arrests of more protestors taking part in active violence. Prosecutors are trying to extradite influencers that play a major role in the disorder from abroad.
The Aftermath:-
The communities that are not indulged in the violence are affected the most and they have not been easily accepting the damages that has been done. After the 7th of August, the Government of UK released a list of names and addresses of immigration lawyers to contain and safeguard several immigration hit areas even after most of the planned cities where the anti-immigrant protests were to be held were failing.
“Numerous community members joined hands and walked down to the streets to join peaceful anti-racism protests. People were seen restoring the broken pavements, cleaning up the roads and their locality after the violence and they have been helping themselves,” says a former chief constable Mark Barton and calls it ‘inspirational’.
People from Southport have been showing up with shovels, brushes and brooms helping cleaning up after the violence and even the tradesmen were seen offering the locals to rebuild walls and replacing windows
for free. Various fundraisers around the country have surfaced gathering donations region and city-wise to help rebuilding peace and the broken fragments of the cities.