(New York, N.Y.) – This past weekend saw a slew of violent protests erupting across the United Kingdom after a stabbing rampage at a children’s dance class in Southport left three children dead and several seriously injured.
Over the weekend, protests broke out across a dozen cities in the United Kingdom—mostly across England, with one protest in Belfast in Northern Ireland. The demonstrations ranged from unruly protests to all-out violent riots: in Rotherham, rioters set upon a hotel that had housed migrants; in Middlesbrough, far-right rioters set a car on fire; in Southport, bricks were thrown and police clashed with anti-Muslim rioters outside a mosque.
The riots broke out following a slew of rumors and misinformation online, claiming that the attacker in the Southport stabbing rampage was an undocumented Muslim migrant. In a rare move hoping to quell the riots, authorities identified the 17-year-old suspect as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana who was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff, Wales, and moved to Lancashire at 13.
Expert Analysis:
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson:
“Much ink has been spilled over the past 48 hours about ‘right-wing thuggery,’ which has been rightly condemned by politicians and commentators alike. But the problems simmering under the surface of these riots are much deeper and will last long after the riots have been justly suppressed and punished.
Commentators in the wake of this weekend’s events have focused primarily on the online instigators who have promoted populism and fueled violence, especially through misinformation and conspiracy theories. Abuse of online platforms is certainly a factor to be dealt with here, but focusing only on these avenues can obscure a much more difficult reality on the ground.
We like to think of ourselves as a society that has achieved multicultural, multiethnic cohesion, and we are very lucky that to a large extent this is true. But there are parts of this country—largely those parts that are economically deprived—where social integration has not worked, and where parallel societies have become entrenched as a result. And these parallel societies are primed to erupt in a violently misguided response to the kind of atrocity we saw in Southport last week.
What is necessary, in addition to retribution for those inciting and carrying out violent acts, is a moderating conversation that works toward prevention as well as punishment.”
CEP Resources:
To read CEP’s resource on Far-Right Extremism, click here.