Over the last week, Southport has witnessed ongoing tragedy and devastation. On the 29th July, three young girls were killed in a knife attack after attending a Taylor Swift themed dance and yoga class. Identified as Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguilar, the victims of this attack were only 6, 7 and 9 years old, respectively. The attack also left eight children injured, and two adults suffering severe injuries. In response to the tragedy, a vigil was held the following day in the local community; a fitting and crucial service to honour these three young lives. Unfortunately, just hours after the vigil, riots erupted, and a space that should have been occupied by respect and grief was suddenly disturbed by an onslaught of hate and violence.
Organised by far-right protestors, the riots were a blatant demonstration of the hatred and xenophobia that simmers within our country. With Southport Mosque being targeted and attacked, alongside anti-Islam chants from rioters, the Islamophobic agenda of this unrest is crystal clear. Described by Southport’s MP to have “hijacked the grief” of the vigil, these riots utterly exploited a tragedy which had nothing to do with the hatred they projected.
Largely due to misinformation circulating online, the roots of these riots swiftly spawned into the beast they became. Despite it being illegal in the UK to identify a suspect who is a minor until proceedings have been completed, allegations quickly spread online that an individual named “Ali Al-Shakati'', who had arrived in the UK by boat in 2023, was the suspect responsible for the Southport murders. Whilst the individual has since been confirmed as “Axel Muganwa Rudakubana'', a British-born teenager from a Rwandan Christian family who has lived his entire life in the UK, the revelation of the killer’s identity seemed too little too late as the anti-foreign sentiments of those who conducted the riots had already taken hold. The rioters did not care if the information online was correct, nor did they care about the three lives lost to tragedy. They saw an opportunity to publicly and violently declare their hatred, and they recklessly jumped at it.
The dangers of misinformation are strikingly evident. In a world that is becoming increasingly beholden to the media, the riots have shown just how far false claims, such as these, can snowball. However, to fully attest these riots to misinformation and social media would be to ignore the much larger issue at hand: the open display of Islamophobia within our country. Utilising the misidentification of the murderer as a Muslim man, the rioters perpetuated the dangerous narrative associating violence and crime with religion and immigration, furthered by figures such as Andrew Tate referring to the murderer as an “illegal” immigrant. Even if this man was a Muslim, to apportion his crime to an entire community is both misguided and discriminative. Narratives such as these are dangerous, xenophobic and must be stopped.
The misinformation and virulent rhetoric that spread online represents a heightened snippet of the daily Islamophobia occurring in the spaces of politics, the law and media which continue to exacerbate harmful perceptions towards Islam in our country. In December 2018, The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) found that “59% of all articles analysed associated Muslims with negative behaviours, over one-third of all articles misrepresented or generalised about Muslims, and 43% of all broadcast clips associated Muslims with negative behaviour”. Conservative Party Members have been investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, by request of the Muslim Council of Britain, following incidents such as Sandy Lancaster’s call for ‘Muslims to be thrown off bridges’, and Lisa Gilfillan Johnston’s call for ‘Muslims to be forcibly sterilised’. Counter terrorism laws correlating Muslim religion and race with national security threats to the West further contribute to this discrimination, with Amnesty International describing such laws as a longstanding human rights concern. Islamophobia is not a secret, it is not hiding in the shadows, it has been continuously seeping through platforms of power and influence in plain sight. These seeds have laid the foundations for the far-right protests to spawn as they have.
The displays of toxic xenophobia in the Southport riots show no signs of slowing down. Since the riot on Tuesday, anti-foreign sentiments have only continued to infect the country. It is already estimated that 35 far-right riots are set to occur across the weekend. Manchester, London and Sunderland, amongst others, have all suffered from similar demonstrations of unrest orchestrated by the far-right. Combatting this disorder, Sir Keir Starmer has pointed to the new national violent disorder programme, which involves the sharing of intelligence, whilst Samira Ali, the national organiser for Stand Up to Racism, has organised several counter-protests, refusing for the far-right to be “left to fester, or go unopposed”. These immediate responses are crucial to contain such violence. But as we attempt to extinguish this hatred, we must also look inward at the systematic roots of Islamophobic and intolerant sentiments that emanate through mainstream media and politics. We must cut short the seeds of hate before they are given room to grow.
The wrongful weaponization of the Southport tragedy is an abuse against the memory of the three young lives lost. It is essential that the names of these three girls: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguilar, remain honoured and respected rather than caught up in a whirlwind of spiteful hate. Amongst this devastation, it is important to recognise the flickers of light shown by the Southport community. A neighbour of the community centre shielded injured children in his home and a man working in a nearby office ran to tackle the perpetrator. Locals have come together to help repair the damage to the Mosque and support affected shops. The streets of Southport have since been inundated with flowers and teddy bears in memory of the stabbing victims. The local community’s unification in light of such tragedy is a testament to their extraordinary resilience and kindness and deserves to be lauded amongst darkness. Hate must not and will not win. We must continue to spread compassion and care and march towards a brighter future together.
Image: By StreetMic LiveStream, CC BY 3.0/YouTube/Wikimedia Commons
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