LONDON (RNS) — After six nights of anti-Muslim and anti-migrant rioting, with looting, assaults on police and hotels set on fire, imams and Muslim community leaders are working with police to increase security at mosques across Britain.
Far-right groups launched the violent protests after falsely alleging that a foreign-born Muslim was behind the July 29 knife attack that killed three young girls and injured eight other children and two adults in a north English town. Authorities have since identified the suspect as 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, reportedly to Rwandan Christian parents.
The riots have exposed divisions across the country over immigration and renewed concerns about the ability of far-right groups on social media to stoke unrest through misinformation.
In a now-deleted post on X, the killer was falsely identified as an asylum seeker named “Ali al-Shakati” said to be known to security services and to mental health agencies. These false claims were then amplified by other X accounts claiming to be “news outlets.” One of the accounts promoting this material, “End Wokeness,” has 2.8 million followers.
Over the weekend, the Home Office, the cabinet department responsible for domestic security, announced that mosques will be offered emergency protection if they are at risk, by way of a rapid security force that would aid local police.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to take legal action against the rioters. Over the past week, police arrested more than 375 people for what Starmer has called “far-right thuggery.”
“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest, it is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he said Monday (Aug. 5) in a televised address after an emergency meeting with police and government ministers.
Hundreds more have participated in the violent protests, and police are still reviewing CCTV footage to identify suspects. Some of the first rioters to be charged appeared in court on Monday.
Southport Mosque. Courtesy image
Meanwhile, British Muslims are increasingly concerned for their safety, with some staying home more for fear of being attacked. Muslim women in particular, often easily identified through their clothing, are particularly distressed about leaving home, said Abubakr Nanabawa, the national coordinator for The Muslim Vote, an organization that encourages Muslims to become involved in politics and vote.
In some areas affected by rioting, including the northern towns of Blackburn, Bolton and Liverpool, groups of young Muslim men have come out onto the streets, acting as street patrols, Nanabawa told Religion News Service.
“Community leaders have given them clear instructions to let the police do their job,” he said. “But we can show we are part of the community and won’t be pushed around.”
Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit that works against disinformation, polarization and extremism, found that the lack of information immediately following the knife attack helped false allegations online go viral.
“False claims surrounding the attack quickly garnered millions of views online, galvanised by anti-Muslim and anti-migrant activists and promoted by platforms’ recommender systems,” the institute reported. “Far-right networks — a mix of formal groups and a broader ecosystem of individual actors — used this spike in activity to mobilise online, organizing anti-Muslim protests outside the local mosque.”
Milo Comerford, the institute’s director of Policy and Research for Counter-Extremism, said the ability to seize on polarization allows activists to blame vulnerable groups, especially migrants and Muslims.
“It doesn’t have to have any basis of truth,” he said. “It really is just about this sort of preexisting campaign, and a preexisting disposition towards assuming that all problems that are facing the U.K. have to do with specific groups.”
Among the media platforms that have been used to foment discord are X, TikTok and groups on the messaging app Telegram. Some local Facebook groups take information from influencers and then pass it on to their neighborhoods.
Many of those involved in spreading false claims online that the knife attacker is a Muslim have long opposed migrants arriving to the U.K. and claim that they are largely responsible for economic ills. Those making false claims also often exhibit a particular dislike of Muslims as the Muslim population has grown over the past decade.
One of the far-right voices stoking the riots is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the alias Tommy Robinson. Yaxley-Lennon is the founder of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam group considered part of Europe’s “counter-jihad” movement. Though he lives miles away in Cyprus, where he has denied claims that he is fleeing a contempt of court case against him in the U.K., he has encouraged his nearly 900,000 followers on X to protest following the knife attack.
“Innocent British people are under violent attack across our nation & the police are nowhere to be seen,” Robinson said on X on Monday. “Kier starmer has caused this . Whilst he promises protection for mosques those who attend the mosques violently attack any non Muslims.”
Another well-known influencer, the actor Laurence Fox, who has more than half a million followers on X, said on the platform the time has come “to permanently remove Islam from Britain. Completely and entirely.”
I cannot believe this traitor.
He’s doubling down on the pathetic rhetoric.
For decades British girls have been raped by immigrant barbarians and he’s finally come out.
On their side.
Fine.
Then it’s war.pic.twitter.com/0pq1bmuqCE
— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) August 4, 2024
In a later post viewed 4.4 million times, Fox denounced Starmer, calling him a “traitor” and declaring “war.”
“For decades British girls have been raped by immigrant barbarians and he’s finally come out. On their side,” Fox said on X. “Fine. Then it’s war.”
Police officers watch members of the public outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week’s stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Many Muslims have expressed surprise by the suddenness and ferocity of the attacks on their communities and other ethnic minorities. But according to Azhar Qayum, chief executive of Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), which aims to combat Islamophobia, “there is no surprise that these communities have been targeted now, because we have just come out of an election campaign which was marred by racist and Islamophobic messaging, by the far-right Reform Party but also by both mainstream Conservative and Labour Parties.
“There are serious issues with unregulated content on social media. However, we have to ask where that content comes from and what enables and mainstreams extremist views. This occurs when politicians and media pander to this demographic for votes.”
Qayum said many Muslims are experiencing “real fear,” and some of their homes have been broken into during the riots.
But there have been some signs of hope. In Liverpool, about 50 demonstrators protesting about Islam gathered outside the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, the oldest mosque in Britain. They were met by hundreds of counter-demonstrators. Some mosque worshippers attempted to talk to the protesters and offered them food, with some visiting the mosque.
“We shook hands with people, we hugged people, we gave out food to people,” Imam Adam Kelwick told Metro, a U.K. news outlet. “We also exchanged numbers in a promise to arrange an event in the mosque to have further discussions.”
According to Kelwick, the demonstrators are people who are struggling with their health and the costs of living and fear stories about “Muslims taking over.”
