- What's Behind the Riots in England
Violent Attacks on Police Officers, Muslim-owned Shops Set Ablaze, Looting: Right-wing Riots Have Been Shaking the UK for Days, with Dozens of Police Injured. Over 400 People Arrested, First Jail Sentences Handed Down.
The unrest was sparked by false claims about the suspected attacker in a knife attack on children in Southport near Liverpool, where three young girls were killed. Rumors suggested the suspect was an illegal immigrant with a Muslim name, but both claims are false. The suspect is a 17-year-old born in the UK to Rwandan immigrants.
However, there's no end in sight to the riots.
Who are the rioters?
Hope not Hate, an organization specializing in monitoring right-wing groups in the UK, reports seeing right-wing activists involved in the unrest. They describe it as potentially the most severe right-wing violence in the UK since World War II.
Security and terrorism expert Peter Neumann from King's College London says it's not just known right-wingers joining the protests and riots. Among them are many young men, football hooligans, women, and older people.
"This should not reassure us, but rather the opposite. It shows that right-wing extremists have found a way to bring people onto the streets far beyond their own echo chamber," Neumann told the German Press Agency.
What role does the internet play?
The riots are organized and fueled on social media platforms like Telegram and Twitter. Lists of targets for planned protests are shared and often escalate into violent riots.
Agitators like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, and former GB News presenter Laurence Fox, who are both right-wing, don't organize the riots but contribute to them with misinformation and provide structure to the movement, Neumann explains.
"This is something new. The role of social media, and disinformation on social media, is something we hadn't seen in this clarity before," Neumann says.
Why is violence flaring up around the topic of migration?
Political scientist Anand Menon from King's College points out that migration is not a top priority for most Britons. However, it has been a significant part of political debate in recent years.
Neumann blames unrealistic promises by the former Conservative government to reduce immigration for contributing to a heated atmosphere. He also notes that the rhetoric has escalated, such as when former Home Secretary Suella Braverman referred to irregular immigrants crossing the English Channel in small boats as an "invasion," lending legitimacy to the discourse of someone like Tommy Robinson.
Is it really about social issues?
The conservative government has increased inequality in the country with its austerity policies since 2010, says sociologist Aaron Winter of Lancaster University to dpa. This has created an environment where long-time residents could blame migrants for the austerity measures, which were actually implemented by a conservative, right-wing government, he says.
"The far right is portrayed as the voice of the left-behind white working class, as the voice of the people, the silent majority," says Winter. Academics, journalists, and political parties sometimes justify far-right statements as legitimate complaints from the working class, making them acceptable in polite society.
Have there been such riots in Germany before?
No, at least not on this scale. What there has been and still is, are demonstrations where migrants, especially Muslims, are targeted, as well as right-wing terrorist attacks, for example on homes where immigrants or their descendants live.
Right-wing violence escalated particularly in eastern Germany in the years after reunification. There were racist riots, for example in Hoyerswerda and in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, where in 1992 a right-wing mob formed in front of a building housing the Central Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers as well as Vietnamese contract workers.
The short-lived and highly violent right-wing alliance "Hooligans against Salafists" (HoGeSa) fought street battles with the police in Cologne in October 2014. In 2018, Daniel H. was killed at a city festival in Chemnitz. In the following days, there were massive protests, with citizens of Chemnitz participating together with neo-Nazis. Also present were AfD politicians and football hooligans. There were riots. In 2019, a Syrian was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. The court was convinced that he had stabbed the victim together with the fleeing accomplice Daniel H.
What role do parties play in Germany?
The AfD has repeatedly used severe crimes committed by immigrants as an opportunity to campaign for the party and its anti-immigration stance in public statements, sometimes even at the scene of the crime.
For example, in Mannheim, where at the end of May a 25-year-old Afghan injured five men with a knife, one of whom, the 29-year-old policeman Rouven Laur, died two days later from his injuries. Participants in an AfD demonstration in Mannheim held up banners with slogans like "Shut the borders". The AfD argues generally that those who don't come into the country can't commit crimes here.
The violent riots continue to cause chaos, with the recent incident of the ['The knife attack'] serving as a catalyst. According to reports, right-wing activists have been involved in the unrest, making it one of the most severe instances of right-wing violence in the UK since World War II.
