Massive Attack have shared a powerful statement calling out successive UK governments, the current Labour administration and the UK media for “years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism“ under-pinning the violent far-right riots currently sweeping across Britain.
The past week has seen riots and on-going racist violence in Southport, Sunderland, London, Belfast, Rotherham, Hull, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Bolton and a number of other towns and cities.
147 arrests have been made over the weekend as violence escalated for a sixth day across Britain in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport last week.
In the aftermath of the horrifying attack upon children attending a school holidays Taylor Swift-themed dance class, false rumours were spread online that the individual responsible was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in 2023 illegally by boat.
The outrage sparked by these untrue claims led Judge Andrew Menary KC to take the unusual decision to name the Cardiff-born teenager arrested and charged with the killings: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Banks in Lancashire, is now facing three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Despite these facts contradicting the false far-right narrative, there have been numerous anti-immigration demonstrations across the UK, many escalating into violent disorder, with attacks on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, the police and, today in Rotherham, Yorkshire, a sustained assault upon a Holiday Inn hotel where asylum seekers are believed to be housed.
Today, August 4, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed that those involved in the violence will be brought to justice, stating, “People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric... I won't shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.“
This same afternoon, Massive Attack shared a statement from the Runnymede Trust , the UK's leading race equality think tank. It reads: “This violent racism has long been simmering under the surface. What is happening is the direct result of years of normalised racism and Islamophobia, enabled by politicians and the British media.
“As far-right mobs threaten mosques, intimidate and harass people, and throw Nazi salutes, we offer our utmost solidarity to people of colour, and Muslim communities in particular.
“Even in their responses to this violence, our Prime Minister and Home Secretary fail to centre Muslim people, or call out racism for what it is,“ the statement continues. “What we are seeing unfold is more than 'thuggery', it is violent racism. This is an inevitable outcome of years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism, where Muslims, people of colour and migrants are scapegoated as a distraction from decades of economic hardship and political failings.
The statement concludes: “We demand political leadership that recognises that challenging the far right is not simply a question of tackling online misinformation, or increased police surveillance. Instead, we urgently need our leaders to challenge the conditions that embolden the far right. These scenes should be unimaginable in 2024.”
More protests are expected across the UK in the coming week.
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