On 07 August, over 150 people gathered in a neighbourhood of Nottingham, a city in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, to sabotage a planned attack on the home of an immigrant lawyer as anti-Muslim race riots spread. Since the violent far-right rallies began on 30 July, counter-protests have sprung across the nation to reject the anti-immigrant Islamophobic rioting.
Thousands of people have joined counter-protests in response to the spreading anti-Muslim race riots in the UK.
“It’s not far-right its fascism,” said Ivan, vice chair of the group Nottingham Stand Up Against Racism. “They got to be opposed at every level.”
Stand Up to Racism called for demonstrations to take place across the country on Saturday, with huge crowds gathering in towns and cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, following more than a week of nationwide race riots.
People at the counter-protest in Nottingham shouted “far-right thugs, off our streets” when half a dozen people with British flags showed up near the home address of an 80-year-old woman. The house was among the 50 addresses shared by far-right extremist groups as targets in their anti-immigrant campaign.
In Nottingham, like several other cities, the racist groups were outnumbered by the counter-protest. The unrest began over the misinformation about the religion of a suspect in the stabbing of children that killed three girls. Although police identified that the suspect was not a Muslim, rallies were taken out anyway, leaving a trail of destruction.
A police station was set on fire and a hotel with asylum seekers was attacked during the violent rallies in the first week of August.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said on Saturday that 779 people have been arrested over the disorder, of whom 349 have already been charged.
The newly elected Labour government has repeatedly vowed to curb the “far-right thuggery” and after much deliberation declared to add emergency security to mosques in the country.
About 6,000 riot-trained officers were drafted in to tackle the expected rallies and an estimated 30 counter-protests happened after immigration law firms and refugee centres were listed as potential targets in a far-right chat group this week.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited a mosque in Solihull in the West Midlands on Thursday in an outreach to the community after activists criticised the refusal of the new leader to meet Muslim community leaders.
On Saturday, hundreds of anti-racism protesters amassed outside one of Reform UK’s offices, as the far-right party is accused of stirring up the tensions.
