LONDON: Thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied across the UK on Saturday to protest recent unrest blamed on the far right in the wake of a knife attack in Southport in which three children were killed.
Crowds gathered in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and many other English cities as fears of violent confrontations with anti-immigration campaigners did not materialise.
It followed a similar situation unfolding on Wednesday night, when expected far-right rallies across the country were replaced by rallies organized by advocacy group Stand Up To Racism.
More than a dozen places across England, as well as Belfast, have previously been hit by unrest following the July 29 stabbing spree, which was wrongly linked on social media to a Muslim immigrant.
Rioters targeted mosques and hotels associated with immigration, as well as police, vehicles and other locations.
But recent nights have been largely quiet in English cities, prompting hopes among authorities that more than 700 arrests and many people already in jail have deterred further violence.
However, in Northern Ireland, where unrest has continued since last weekend, police said overnight they were investigating a suspected racially motivated hate crime.
According to the Police of Northern Ireland (PSNI), a petrol bomb was thrown at a mosque in Newtownards, east Belfast, with graffiti sprayed on the front door and walls of the building in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It stated that the petrol bomb thrown on the property did not catch fire.
“This is being treated as a racially motivated hate crime and I want to send a strong message to those who carried it out that this type of activity will not be tolerated and any reports of hate crime are taken very seriously,” the PSNI boss said. Inspector Keith Hutchinson said.
There were also reports of damage to property and vehicles in Belfast overnight as overnight disturbances rumbled there.
The riots in Northern Ireland were sparked by events in England but were also fueled by pro-British loyalist paramilitaries with their own agenda, according to the PSNI.
Around 5,000 anti-racism protesters gathered in Belfast on Saturday without incident.
In London, hundreds of people gathered outside the office of Brexit architect Nigel Farage's Reform UK party ahead of a march on parliament as a large police presence looked on.
Farage and other far-right figures have been accused of helping to fuel the unrest through anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
“It's really important for people of color in this country, for immigrants in this country, to see us here as white British people saying 'no, we don't stand for this,'” says participant Phoebe Sewell, 32, from London. he told AFP.
Londoner Jeremy Snelling, 64, said he turned up because “I don't like the right wing claiming the street in my name”.
He did not hold Farage “personally responsible” for the violence, but claimed the Reform Party founder had “contributed” to an unstable environment.
“I think he's harmful and I think he's dangerous,” Snelling added.
