Kamal Alwani, Taha Hassib (London)
Britain’s Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said yesterday that the government had urged police to remain on high alert for further rioting over the next two weekends after days of attacks, unrest and racist violence.
The violence began last week after false posts spread online wrongly suggesting that the man responsible for the stabbing deaths of three young girls on July 29 in Southport, northwest England, was a radical Muslim immigrant.
The violence, carried out by what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as “far-right outlaws”, mainly targeted Muslims, black people and migrants, with hotels housing asylum seekers having their windows smashed and mosques stoned.
Starmer said authorities would remain on high alert for further unrest.
The British Prime Minister warned that those involved in the riots should expect to appear in court, and that “significant sentences” have already been handed down.
It seems that the security package has enabled the British police, with its specialized officers and large logistical means, to prevent new riots.
Observers believe that the reason why far-right demonstrators did not slip into violence is also due to the counter-demonstrations that created a kind of balance, as they sent messages through the slogans they raised that a broad segment of British public opinion is against violence and racism.
“We are in a very confusing situation and honestly this problem needs to be dealt with at a political level,” British journalist Paulette Fleming told Al-Ittihad. “First of all, I want to say that there are a lot of unhappy people in the UK, but there are also a lot of people who have been misled and have taken their anger out on minorities, and this is unfair. I think the police have done their job well by putting an end to this unacceptable violent behaviour in the UK.”
But observers expect that riots will return, albeit at a lesser level, and that, far from being politically justified, the unrest witnessed in the British street for days indicates accumulated problems and it is time to deal with them seriously.
“The debate that Labour has to accept is about controlling immigration more firmly than we have seen in the last 30 years,” Conservative Party activist Christopher Venanti told the union. “The truth is that everyone and many politicians are saying that, but the truth is that immigration is still out of control.”
The most affected by the unrest on the British street are the immigrants who are upset that they are being targeted in shelters and at law firms that consider asylum applications.
While the “Labour” government continues to deal firmly with the far-right unrest, the voices of a number of politicians have been raised, demanding that a parliamentary debate be opened, which they describe as frank and honest, about the real reasons that led to the unrest on the British street.
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