08/07/2024
Who is the far right in the United Kingdom, and how did they fan the flames in the recent riots?
Who is the far right in the United Kingdom, and how did they fan the flames in the recent riots?
Police have clashed with rioters in Rotherham in recent daysImage: Danny Lawson/dpa/picture alliance
Parts of the United Kingdom have been engulfed in rioting since a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the northwestern English town of Southport killed three girls and injured several others.
The suspected perpetrator was later revealed to be Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents. But protests in response to the attack took on quite a different dimension, transforming into an ethnic or sectarian clash.
On one side were far-right supporters and local, predominantly white communities; on the other, immigrant-related targets, particularly in the Muslim community.
Hotels housing asylum-seekers were set on fire, public buildings were damaged and police stations were attacked by throngs of agitators in various parts of the country. Masked, predominantly Asian men were also spotted in social media clips strolling the streets.
Many people asked whether the violence was planned or arose spontaneously and haphazardly. And how did a knife attack at a dance class, carried out by a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents and of nominally Christian belief, turn into riots that targeted predominantly Muslims?
Parts of the United Kingdom have been engulfed in rioting since a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the northwestern English town of Southport killed three girls and injured several others.
The suspected perpetrator was later revealed to be Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents. But protests in response to the attack took on quite a different dimension, transforming into an ethnic or sectarian clash.
On one side were far-right supporters and local, predominantly white communities; on the other, immigrant-related targets, particularly in the Muslim community.
Hotels housing asylum-seekers were set on fire, public buildings were damaged and police stations were attacked by throngs of agitators in various parts of the country. Masked, predominantly Asian men were also spotted in social media clips strolling the streets.
Many people asked whether the violence was planned or arose spontaneously and haphazardly. And how did a knife attack at a dance class, carried out by a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents and of nominally Christian belief, turn into riots that targeted predominantly Muslims?
Riot police faced off with protesters after disorder broke out on July 30 in Southport
The UK's protective reporting laws initially barred the police from releasing the name of the knife attack suspect, a minor, which was capitalized on by the far right.
Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told DW that in the absence of the attacker's name, the far right had a chance to blame it on their favorite enemy: Muslim immigrants.
"The far right spread rumors that he was an irregular migrant, that he was a Muslim," she told DW.
She said that while that itself didn't cause the riot, it lit the spark of the fear and hatred "that has been whipped up in the UK by the previous Conservative government, some of the newspapers, as well as far-right groups since before Brexit."
By the time a judge lifted the anonymity of the attacker's name, the UK's new and old far right had gathered enough momentum for their campaign, mostly online.
Hope not Hate, an anti-racism charity, said in a statement that the far right organized a flurry of demonstrations across the country "on a broad anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and anti-multiculturalism agenda." The organization added what unfolded was"the worst wave of far-right violence in the UK post-war."
Who are the UK's new far right?
The new far right in the UK is a smorgasbord of smaller groups, often individual actors who are online phenomenons. They have out-sized influence due to their ability to tap into some genuine complaints online, but mostly use social media to provoke bigotry against immigrants and Muslims.
A key player in the UK's far-right ecosystem is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, who has adopted the name Tommy Robinson.
He is a former member of the far-right and fascist British National Party (BNP) and a co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right, anti-immigrant group.
The BNP does not have a single elected representative in the UK, and the EDL has long been deemed defunct. And yet, according to Merseyside police, EDL supporters were prominent in a clash with officers posted outside a mosque in Southport earlier last week. British media reported that the government is pondering whether to proscribe the group as an extremist organization.
The EDL was established in London in 2009, and many of its followers were football fans who believed that Muslims could never be truly English. Football hooliganism has a long association with far-right activity in the UK, though the association has declined since the hooligans' heyday in the 1970s and '80s.
Yaxley-Lennon continues to be an influential figure among EDL supporters and disseminates his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-police message through his 900,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter.
In a post on X on August 2, he seemed to hail the attack on a police station and said, "You should've listened @Keir_Starmer," tagging the British prime minister's account.
Andrew Tate, a British-American social media influencer currently awaiting trial in Romania on rape and trafficking charges, has also accused the police in the UK of siding with immigrants and Muslims. He himself is mixed race and has declared himself to be a Muslim convert. He was among the first to start the rumor that led to the recent violence, suggesting the Southport attacker had "arrived on a boat a month ago."
In a post on X, he shared an image of a brown man on a rubber dinghy holding a knife in one hand and British pounds in the other. The post said, "Typical man from Cardiff."
Police mistrust sown by far right abets violence and hatred
Sowing mistrust against the police and tarnishing its credibility is another tactic widely being adopted by all hues of far-right actors in the UK. Experts said this turns the people against the law enforcement agencies and encourages them to resort to violence.
Matthew Hankinson, a convicted member of the neo-Nazi group National Action, which was banned by the British government in 2016, attended the Southport riot and reportedly argued in favor of killing corrupt police officers. He accused the police of oppressing people merely protesting the murder of "white children," according to the BBC.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, also seems to have deliberately created doubts about the information shared and questioned the police's sincerity. He said he wondered "whether the truth is being withheld from us."
Paul Golding, co-leader of another far-right fascist political party called Britain First, posted more tweets questioning the fairness of the police. Experts said such accusations against the police are often linked with anti-Muslim content to deliberately drive a false link.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer laid flowers near the site of the Southport attack
Image: James Speakman/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance
Far right is thankful to Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has emerged as the biggest supporter of the UK's far right. Last year, Yaxley-Lennon thanked Musk for reinstating his account on X after he was banned for posting hateful content.
In a controversial move, Musk recently posted that a "Civil war is inevitable" in Britain.
When Starmer took to X to assuage the concerns of the citizens, saying, "We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities," Musk started a war of words by insinuating the prime minister wasn't interested in the safety of all communities.
Golding of Britain First piggy-backed on Musk's questioning of the prime minister and posted that Musk was "exposing Keir Starmer" with a clapping hand emoji.
In a note titled "Violent disorder driven by disinformation and social media rumors,"BJ Harrington, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for public order, said: "Disinformation is a huge driver of this appalling violence, and we know a lot of those attending these so-called protests are doing so in direct response to what they've read online.
"Often, posts are shared and amplified by high-profile accounts. We're working hard to counteract this."
He asked people to "please pay special attention to what you read, share and believe from online sources."
Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp
6,000 police deployed as Britain braces for wave of riots targeting immigration lawyers
By Paul Godfrey
Aug. 7, 2024 /
British authorities were gearing up for as many as 30 riots across the country Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets. File photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- British authorities were gearing up for a wave of riots across England with reports of at least 30 planned for Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets.
A "standing army" of 6,000 police was mobilized after far-right groups circulated a list of 39 immigration lawyers, charities and groups that provide services to migrants and refugees on social media and 500 prison spaces had been freed up as public prosecutors threatened swingeing justice for those participating in or organizing violent disorder.
"All of us are concerned that a list is being circulated online," Communities Minister Jim McMahon told BBC Radio.
"We at this point don't know if those will transpire to be protests in the way that we've seen in other places. Or whether it's a list that's intended just to cause alarm and distress, or even to provoke.
"But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, our prosecutor response and also our court response," said McMahon.
The country's top prosecutor said at least one rioter had been charged with terror offenses and warned his office would consider the same where organized groups were planning "really serious disruption to advance an ideology."
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said his officials would deploy every legal means available to put people behind the disorder behind bars and that anti-terrorism laws were being used in one ongoing prosecution.
Police also said they were confident they would be able to maintain control.
The Law Society said it had "serious concerns for the safety and wellbeing" of its members with at least one immigration advice center boarding up its windows and doors in anticipation of trouble.
"A direct assault on our legal profession is a direct assault on our democratic values and we are supporting our members who are being targeted," the society's president, Nick Emmerson, said in a post on X.
He added that he had written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking that the threats against the profession be treated with the "utmost seriousness."
The non-profit advocacy group Hope Not Hate warned the list was an aspirational "hit list" that called for action, "up to and including terrorism" against the targets named at 8 p.m. local time, circulated by an anonymous individual who it said was also involved in instigating anti-Muslim violence in Southport and Liverpool over the past week.
"This actor, who has also called for the assassinations of public figures, must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law," HNH said in a news release.
The group said the purpose of the list was to spread fear and uncertainty as it was impossible to predict whether and where attacks might materialize and therefore "any and all services should be on high alert."
HNH said it was also monitoring a number of other far-right demonstrations planned for the days ahead which it said were emerging "more organically" and so may attract larger numbers of protesters.
The developments came after a night of relative calm with police in Liverpool and Durham tamping down tensions with the use of dispersal orders that give them powers to order people to leave the area.
The coroner was due to open inquests Wednesday morning in the Liverpool suburb of Sefton into the killings of Bebe King, 6, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, in nearby Southport on July 29.
The last of the eight other children and two adults injured in the stabbing spree at a dance studio -- triggering a week of unrest across England and Northern Ireland -- were discharged from hospital.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana,17, of Banks in Lancashire, was charged July 31 with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.
On Wednesday, the first rioters were also sent to prison with a judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentencing one man to three years for taking part in violent disorder in Southport last week when a mob hijacked a vigil for the slain girls, injuring dozens of police and attacking police vehicles and a mosque.
The man received a concurrent two-month sentence for assaulting a police officer.
Another man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for violent disorder and torching a police vehicle in Liverpool plus two months for perpetrating "malicious communication."
A third man was sent to prison for 18 months plus two months for a "racially aggravated element" of the offense.
The first significant prison sentences follow the jailing of an 18-year-old man sent to prison Tuesday for two months after pleading guilty to criminal damage charges following a riot near Manchester on Sunday.
About 100 among the more than 400 people arrested across the country since rioting erupted a day after the July 29 killings in Southport pleaded not guilty to various charges but, unusually, were refused bail pending trial.
Juveniles, however, continue to be bailed in line with standard policy.
By Paul Godfrey
Aug. 7, 2024 /
British authorities were gearing up for as many as 30 riots across the country Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets. File photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- British authorities were gearing up for a wave of riots across England with reports of at least 30 planned for Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets.
A "standing army" of 6,000 police was mobilized after far-right groups circulated a list of 39 immigration lawyers, charities and groups that provide services to migrants and refugees on social media and 500 prison spaces had been freed up as public prosecutors threatened swingeing justice for those participating in or organizing violent disorder.
"All of us are concerned that a list is being circulated online," Communities Minister Jim McMahon told BBC Radio.
"We at this point don't know if those will transpire to be protests in the way that we've seen in other places. Or whether it's a list that's intended just to cause alarm and distress, or even to provoke.
"But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, our prosecutor response and also our court response," said McMahon.
The country's top prosecutor said at least one rioter had been charged with terror offenses and warned his office would consider the same where organized groups were planning "really serious disruption to advance an ideology."
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said his officials would deploy every legal means available to put people behind the disorder behind bars and that anti-terrorism laws were being used in one ongoing prosecution.
Police also said they were confident they would be able to maintain control.
The Law Society said it had "serious concerns for the safety and wellbeing" of its members with at least one immigration advice center boarding up its windows and doors in anticipation of trouble.
"A direct assault on our legal profession is a direct assault on our democratic values and we are supporting our members who are being targeted," the society's president, Nick Emmerson, said in a post on X.
He added that he had written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking that the threats against the profession be treated with the "utmost seriousness."
The non-profit advocacy group Hope Not Hate warned the list was an aspirational "hit list" that called for action, "up to and including terrorism" against the targets named at 8 p.m. local time, circulated by an anonymous individual who it said was also involved in instigating anti-Muslim violence in Southport and Liverpool over the past week.
"This actor, who has also called for the assassinations of public figures, must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law," HNH said in a news release.
The group said the purpose of the list was to spread fear and uncertainty as it was impossible to predict whether and where attacks might materialize and therefore "any and all services should be on high alert."
HNH said it was also monitoring a number of other far-right demonstrations planned for the days ahead which it said were emerging "more organically" and so may attract larger numbers of protesters.
The developments came after a night of relative calm with police in Liverpool and Durham tamping down tensions with the use of dispersal orders that give them powers to order people to leave the area.
The coroner was due to open inquests Wednesday morning in the Liverpool suburb of Sefton into the killings of Bebe King, 6, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, in nearby Southport on July 29.
The last of the eight other children and two adults injured in the stabbing spree at a dance studio -- triggering a week of unrest across England and Northern Ireland -- were discharged from hospital.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana,17, of Banks in Lancashire, was charged July 31 with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.
On Wednesday, the first rioters were also sent to prison with a judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentencing one man to three years for taking part in violent disorder in Southport last week when a mob hijacked a vigil for the slain girls, injuring dozens of police and attacking police vehicles and a mosque.
The man received a concurrent two-month sentence for assaulting a police officer.
Another man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for violent disorder and torching a police vehicle in Liverpool plus two months for perpetrating "malicious communication."
A third man was sent to prison for 18 months plus two months for a "racially aggravated element" of the offense.
The first significant prison sentences follow the jailing of an 18-year-old man sent to prison Tuesday for two months after pleading guilty to criminal damage charges following a riot near Manchester on Sunday.
About 100 among the more than 400 people arrested across the country since rioting erupted a day after the July 29 killings in Southport pleaded not guilty to various charges but, unusually, were refused bail pending trial.
Juveniles, however, continue to be bailed in line with standard policy.
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