“As mothers we were worried, we have young children and soon they will be going to school and we are worried about their safety, they are worried about their safety,” Faiza Ahmed, a mother of three who lives in Bangor, told BBC News NI.

Recent racist disorder in Belfast has led to attacks on ethnic minority-owned businesses. The Muslim Mothers Collective wrote to Givan, expressing their “deep concern” and requesting “strong assurances” for their children’s safety and proactive measures to prevent bullying.

Ahmed mentioned that her children, who had previously enjoyed school, are now anxious.

“It won’t be the same; now they go back to school thinking, wondering, and worrying,” she said.

The summer months were “terrible” due to the unrest, leaving families unable to enjoy time together.

Ahmed, who has only lived in Bangor for a year, was particularly disappointed as she missed the opportunity to make memories with her children.

Her youngest, starting school soon, asked, “Mum, is it safe?” Ahmed reassured her, but shared her anxiety: “Our children should be safe… it’s not their responsibility.”

In response to the concerns raised, Givan announced plans for risk assessments at schools near recent protests and acknowledged that recent events could make it more challenging for ethnic minority children to feel safe and succeed at school.

Source: About Islam

The United Nations committee responsible for combating racism has criticized the United Kingdom over continuing hate crimes, hate speech and xenophobic incidents, following riots fueled by hate and misinformation that gripped the country this summer.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed deep concern on Friday, August 23, over the presence of racist speech on various platforms, particularly when perpetuated by politicians and public figures.

The committee was “particularly concerned about recurring racist acts, violence, and hate speech against ethnic and ethno-religious minorities, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers by extremist far-right and white supremacist individuals and groups.”

According to CERD’s report, the UK must act to curb the sharp increase in the use of racist hate speech by British politicians and high-profile public figures. Ministers must “adopt comprehensive measures to discourage and combat racist hate speech and xenophobic discourse by political and public figures” and ensure that such cases are “effectively investigated and sanctioned.”

The committee members declined to name which politicians or public figures had made comments triggering the committee’s concern, but added there were “so many credible reports” of racist comments by high-profile individuals that there was “no doubt that the issue is a serious one in the UK”.

The unrest, which gripped the UK for over a week in July and August, was triggered by misinformation surrounding a tragic stabbing incident in Southport, England, where three young girls were killed.

The suspect, a 17-year-old boy named Axel Rudakubana, was initially reported as a Muslim immigrant, despite being born in Cardiff to Christian Rwandan parents. This false narrative quickly spread on social media, inciting violence across the country.

Exploiting the tragedy, far-right groups launched protests that spiraled into violent clashes with police. Hotels housing asylum seekers were set on fire, and mosques and businesses owned by ethnic and religious minorities were attacked. In total, around 600 people were arrested in connection with the riots.

Notorious anti-immigration figures like Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage were accused of stoking the flames. Farage, a prominent MP and leader of Reform UK, warned ominously of further unrest, while his previous comments on Muslims not sharing British values further fueled tensions.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the violence, labeling it as “far-right thuggery.”

Presenting the report on Friday based on a four-year review into Britain’s record on tackling race discrimination, the committee highlighted “very troubling” manifestations of racism within the UK, flagging particular concern about racial profiling in stop and search practices, and the “excessive and deadly” use of force by law enforcement.

Committee members were “particularly concerned about the high number of strip-searches carried out on children, especially children of African descent, by law enforcement officials, and at the increase of police presence in schools with higher proportions of ethnic minority children”.

The government should “take steps to address the over-policing of schools with higher proportions of ethnic minority pupils and adopt and strengthen legislation and other measures to explicitly prohibit strip-searches on children”, the report advised.

A UK government spokesperson said on Friday: “There is no excuse for the hatred, violence and intimidation we saw online and on our streets. It was not legitimate protest, it was violent thuggery, and why we have taken the toughest action to ensure those involved in the disorder, directly or indirectly by stirring up hatred, face the full force of the law.”

Source: UN News

Muslim workers in the National Health Service (NHS) have reported a surge in abuse and racism since the start of the far-right riots in the UK last week, hindering their ability to provide effective care, a British Muslim medical body has told The New Arab.

Muslim medical staff across the UK have been targeted in their personal and professional spaces, forcing them to close practices early, avoid certain routes home, and feel unsafe when travelling to work.

Dr Sahira Dar, the vice president of the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) said health workers have been on the receiving end of racial slurs and serious threats.

“There are lots of stories being shared about things that are happening in different localities, and we’re hearing of GP practices that have had to close early out of fear for their staff, some staff are also working remotely,” she told TNA.

“There’s been an incident of someone randomly walking into a GP practice shouting ‘kill this Muslim man’…people are very understandably extremely afraid,” she added.

Dozens of far-right riots spread across the UK after misinformation over the identity of a perpetrator of a Southport attack which killed three girls spread.

Social media was awash with false information suggesting the attacker was Muslim or an immigrant, triggering a wave of violent anger and mob riots across the country.

Impact on access to healthcare

According to Dr Dar, the far-right abuse has not just affected Muslim staff, but people of color (POC) staff more generally.

“It is affecting people that share characteristics with Muslims, and people are afraid of being attacked at work, including Hindu and Sikh staff,” she said.

It has had a knock-on effect on patients, as more doctors were forced to stay home during the riots, despite others still going in while afraid.

“Because of staff shortages and various other things, the NHS is already under a lot of stress, and now we have staff fearing for their lives…some patients will now not be able to access healthcare and we know that ethnic minorities, marginalized communities, asylum seekers, refugees are affected greatly by health inequalities and access to health,” she added, saying the full extent of the consequences of healthcare will be seen in the coming weeks and months.

Other medical organizations have also reported a skyrocket in abuse, raising alar over the impact it was having on the medical sector.

The London ambulance service on Monday said staff were reporting an “increase in racial abuse and hostility from a small minority”.

According to the Guardian, the British Egyptian Medical Association (BEMA) said it observed a “troubling increase in fear of racist abuse and discrimination” among the 11,000 doctors, dentists and pharmacists it represents.

The association said the abuse hindered their ability to provide proper care to patients, particularly as some staff were forced to work remotely or could not do home visits.

Dr Dar told TNA there had been a “mixed response” around the country to the riots and abuse against Muslim medical staff.

“It’s really important for our NHS leadership to call it what it is, and use precise language because that helps with the support element of it. We have asked for certain organizations to correct their statements and call these attacks Islamophobic because that is what they are. We have had a positive response to this campaign” she said, noting one institution issued a correction and called the attacks ‘Islamophobic’ following a request from BIMA.

She also urged the media and the British government to be “very careful” of the language that they use and be responsible when reporting information.

This week, chief executive of NHS England addressed the rising concerns and feelings of unsafety among Muslim NHS workers.

“We shouldn’t let dedication to duty disguise the fact that for many NHS workers, seeing this flare-up of racism will leave them feeling afraid and unwelcome,” Amanda Pritchard said.

Source: Arab News

“They burned every single thing, there is nothing left inside, just ashes,” said Bashir, whose supermarket in Belfast was torched during attacks against foreign-owned shops and businesses.

A mosque in a town near Belfast was also targeted late Friday, August 9.

“We are scared at what may happen next, there is lots of hostility against the Muslim community,” said the 28-year-old from Dubai, who did not want to give his full name citing safety reasons.

Northern Ireland has seen nightly unrest, mainly in pro-UK loyalist neighborhoods, that began after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on August 3.

The violence has mirrored disorder across England, spurred by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack in Southport on July 29 which killed three children.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Saturday, August 10, that 31 people have been arrested during the disturbances.

“On a fundamental level the Belfast attacks are similar in its dynamic to anti-immigration protests in white working class areas in England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe,” said Peter McLoughlin, a politics lecturer at Queens University Belfast.

“It is driven by racism and fear of the other, but in Northern Ireland it also interfaces with sectarian political dynamics,” he told AFP.

‘Under attack’

Three decades of violent sectarian conflict known as the “Troubles” largely ended in 1998, but bitterness and frictions persist between pro-UK Protestant loyalists and pro-Irish unity Catholic nationalists.

Outside Bashir’s smoke-scarred shopfront in the staunchly loyalist inner-city district of Sandy Row, British Union Jack flags flutter on lampposts and painted wall murals proclaim fierce allegiance to the UK.

“Within loyalism there is a sense that prevailed through Northern Ireland’s peace process that their community is in retreat, that their community and British identity is under attack,” McLoughlin explained.

Many loyalists feel they “must oppose outsiders coming into those areas, who are seen as taking supposedly Protestant jobs and houses, and encroaching on a community that was once dominant,” he added.

After last Saturday’s anti-immigration protest, rioters rampaged through streets looking for foreign-owned businesses to attack.

“What happened last week was crazy,” Yilmaz Batu, a 64-year-old Turkish chef who has been living in Northern Ireland for two years, told AFP.

“There was never any trouble before,” he said, sitting at the Sahara Shisha Cafe, one of several Middle Eastern and Turkish-owned businesses near Sandy Row that were hit.

The Northern Ireland Muslim Council said in a statement that “the vast majority of the violence has been whipped up and fueled by deliberate misinformation and disinformation on social media”.

“False and dangerous narratives” about Muslims who “constitute a small minority in Northern Ireland” led to the attacks, it added.

‘Extremely shocking’

Northern Ireland has low rates of immigration compared to the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

The 2021 census showed about six percent of the population were born outside the UK or Ireland, with around 97 percent describing their ethnicity as white.

The disorder was “extremely shocking for the wider community,” said Fiona Doran, chair of the United Against Racism group which co-organized a solidarity rally in Belfast on Saturday, August 10.

The demonstration, which drew several thousand people, gave people “a chance to come out on the streets, to show that Belfast is a welcoming city, it’s a city that says no to racism and fascism,” she told AFP.

At an anti-immigration rally the previous day in Belfast, around a hundred protestors carried British flags and placards reading “respect our country or leave!”

Some chanted the name of Tommy Robinson, a notorious anti-Muslim agitator who has been accused of helping to fuel the unrest in England through constant social media posts about the events.

Nearby, behinds ranks of armored police vehicles, more than 1,000 counter-protestors chanted “racists out!”

Bashir told AFP on Saturday, August 10, he is unsure if he will reopen his supermarket.

“My question is: are we able to do that? If we do, it will be because of all the people who came out to show us support,” he said following the solidarity demonstration.

Source: France24

The organizations say: “the recent surge in Extreme Right-Wing violence, driven by extremist figures led by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as ‘Tommy Robinson’… has created a climate of terror for ethnic minorities and Muslims across the country.”

They say that law enforcement and intelligence agencies have failed to contain this growing threat so they have come together to request that the EDL is proscribed as a terrorist organization.

The Muslim, Black and Asian legal organizations are: Association of Muslim Lawyers, Society of Black Lawyers, Black Lives Matter, Legal Action for Peace, Society of Asian Lawyers, Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organizations, Aziz Foundation, Restless Beings, Muslim Women of Merton, Finsbury Park Mosque, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, Muslim Professionals Forum, Balham Mosque & Tooting Islamic Centre, Muslim Association of Britain and Parents United.

Their letter states: “Yaxley-Lennon has been inciting his followers by fueling hatred towards Muslims and ethnic minorities including refugees. On 1^st June, he launched his documentary ‘Lawfare’ which covers his warped perception that there is a ‘two-tier policing’ system of the pro-Palestinian protests as opposed to those that were against the pro-Palestinian protests in support of Israel’s ‘plausible genocide’ of the Palestinians…

“Since his first protest on 1st June, Yaxley-Lennon has increased his rhetoric by inciting his followers to commit violence against Muslims, refugees and ultimately people of color. You can see that he has continued to repeat his claims of ‘two-tier policing’ which is now being extended to extremely dangerous and sinister claims of a ‘two-tier government.’ At the time of writing, Yaxley-Lennon continues to publish conspiracy theories and false narratives.

“We consider that Yaxley-Lennon has been inciting terrorism via his tweets to large audiences. In a video on 4th August, he said in anger ‘Men will rise up, they were always going to rise up, they have to rise up to defend their families.’ A hotel, housing asylum seekers, was set on fire by his supporters on 4th August in Tamworth placing their lives and hotel staff at risk…

“In light of Yaxley-Lennon’s conduct including incitement and the continued association and presence of former EDL members at his protests, it is our view that EDL meets the statutory test to proscribe EDL in order to protect the public from its members…

“We cannot in good conscience risk our lives or the lives of our families by returning to normality until the EDL is proscribed. The government’s responsibility to protect its citizens is paramount, and we urge you to act swiftly and decisively to restore peace and security. We remain open to dialogue and are ready to assist in any way possible to ensure the safety of all citizens and refugees in this country.”

English Defence League (EDL)

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary may proscribe an organization if they believe it is concerned with terrorism, and it is proportionate to do so.

Under the Act, terrorism means the use or threat of action which involves serious violence against a person, serious damage to property, endangers a person’s life or creates a risk to life, to influence the government or intimidate the public.

It must also be carried out with the aim to advance a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.

The EDL was founded in 2009 and experienced its heyday in 2011.

Tommy Robinson – a former member of the BNP who had a criminal conviction for assault – became the group’s de facto leader shortly after it was formed.

Ideologically, it rejected the idea that Muslims can truly be English, while promoting Islam as a threat to European values and blaming a perceived decline in “English culture” on high immigration rates.

The profile of the EDL rose dramatically between 2010 and 2013, but soon began to lose momentum – partly due to in-fighting among the group’s different factions.

The group was then revealed to have links to Norwegian far-right activist Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of a series of bombing and shooting attacks in July 2011 that killed 77 people.

Robinson left the organization in 2013, amid fears he could not control the group’s more violent followers.

Source: 5pillarsuk.com