Tens of Thousands Rally Against Racism and Islamophobia in U.K. Following Days of Far-Right Rioting

AMY GOODMAN: Massive rallies against racism and Islamophobia filled the streets of cities across the United Kingdom Wednesday as communities united to counter a recent surge in far-right violence. In recent days, British police have arrested 400 far-right rioters for carrying out a string of attacks in England and Northern Ireland targeting Muslims and migrants. On Wednesday, thousands gathered in London to speak out against the far right.

PROTESTERS: Say it loud! Say it proud! Refugees are welcome here!

SHANAZINGA INGAR: We want to unite. We want to send a clear message that these are our streets. We’ve worked hard to create unity, and we have a community. We’re not going to let fascists, we’re not going to let racists and the far right march, march here. Yeah, that’s basically why I’m here. And there’s fear. They’ve spread a lot of fear. And I was fearful, but I thought, “No, it’s very important to be here and meet them. If they want to talk, then let’s talk.”

JOHN HOUSTON: Well, my parents’ generation went through great sacrifices to fight against fascism from Germany. And it started off with small groups on the streets attacking immigrants, or, in those days, Jews. Now the same types of people are on the streets in this country. It’s absolutely disgraceful. And I’m standing here against that and with the community here to show that, you know, we were totally opposed to fascism then and we’re totally opposed to fascism now.

KIRSTY McNEAL: Truly, as you can see today, we really, truly, truly do come together. We did it before. We’ll do it again. And I’m just worried about the places where this is not happening, where the people aren’t coming out to stop them. I’m really, truly worried about those other communities and feeling really worried about everybody, really worried about people’s safety, my friends’ children’s safety. I’ve got a lot of people of color in my network. I’m worried about the Muslim people, the people of all faiths suffering. Just don’t need them. We don’t want them. It’s time to move on from this. I can’t believe it’s happening again, obviously around the Thatcher years. I can’t believe, used to get up in the anti-Nazi marches, and here we are again.

AMY GOODMAN: Voices from a major anti-fascist protest in London Wednesday in response to far-right violence targeting Muslim and immigrant communities. Over the weekend, rioters raided and set fire to hotels used to shelter asylum seekers in northern England. The right-wing violence erupted after misinformation spread about a suspect in a recent stabbing that killed three little girls. On Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned what he called “far-right thuggery.”

PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: 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. So, no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now in London by Faiza Shaheen, visiting professor of practice at London School of Economics. She joined us in June after she was blocked from running for Parliament in Britain’s general election after the Labour Party suspended her over her social media activity and liking several posts.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Faiza. Thanks for joining us. Explain what is happening. Begin at the beginning, the reason the far right is rioting across the country, and then this massive response in Britain by anti-fascist organizers and just the people of Britain.

FAIZA SHAHEEN: Yeah. I mean, this phase, I would say, of far-right activity in this country was sparked just a week ago when there was this horrific murder, stabbing of three or more children at a dance class in Southport, which is in the north of England, and three little girls were killed. And it was horrific, and that community was, of course, you know, in bits. And misinformation spread online that it was a Muslim youth that had committed this crime.

And immediately what happened was the far right came out. And more than that, online, you know, not just the thugs and the terrorists on the streets, but online, immediately, a whole bunch of pundits, politicians on the right started saying that this is because of immigration and this is because Muslims are taking over and this is — you know, all of that sort of language that people were used to hearing, unfortunately, in different parts of the world and in the U.S.

And then we had a pushback saying, “Oh, this person isn’t Muslim.” And so, you know, we had the BBC, for instance, reporting this isn’t a Muslim. But it was interesting even how that was said, as if, if they were a Muslim, then it would be OK to do what they were doing, which is going, attacking mosques. And that’s where it first started. And then just an emboldened, organized far right on the streets around the country stopping cars, pulling people out of cars, beating them up, pulling hijabs off women, going to areas where they know there’s a lot of immigrants and Muslims and smashing cars, smashing homes. I mean, just a whole spate of terror caused so much anxiety and fear amongst the community.

And, you know, there’s been a few reactions off the back of that in the last week. So, we’ve had the government reaction, which has been more focused on law and order. Of course, these people need to be arrested. It’s taken them a while to get to the point to be able to call it racism and Islamophobia, actually. Quite a lot of pressure has been put on for it to be called that.

Secondly was the media reaction, which has been really upsetting. I mean, we’ve heard on the BBC them call these rioters, and they’ve called it “pro-British marches,” which is just so upsetting. They’ve done a sort of bothsiding, you know, that they’re there causing trouble, but also there’s these Muslim men outside the mosque, as if them trying to protect the mosque is the same as these people coming and terrorizing that mosque. That has upset a lot of people.

And then, thirdly is the people, the people coming out in the street, as we saw last night, and these rallies around the country. So, yes, we expected them to be really big in London, but they were also big in Bristol and other parts of the country, as well, people just saying that we don’t want this violence on our street, we reject this ideology. And that, you know, I think, as a Muslim myself and as someone that has received so many messages from people that have felt very, very anxious, you know, it was heartening to see that.

But we’ve got to understand, actually, this didn’t just start last week, that this is the outcome of almost decades now of drip-feeding poison into the ears of the public, and not just the Conservatives, but Labour, as well, and other politicians, Nigel Farages, the kind of far right politically, talking about immigration in a really negative way and Muslims as if they are a problem, legitimating these sorts of concerns, concerns that the far right say about Muslims taking over, etc. And unfortunately, we’re still hearing that quite a lot. So, you know, this problem is about social media. It is about arresting people. But it’s much, much deeper than that. And it is about the politics of the far right and anti-immigration, which is really deep-seated in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Faiza, this week, Labour MP Zarah Sultana was interviewed on Good Morning Britain about the far-right riots and tried to raise the issue of Islamophobia. This is how it went.

KATE GARRAWAY: Why is it important to you to use that specific word, “Islamophobic”? It’s been called “racist.”

ZARAH SULTANA: Yeah.

KATE GARRAWAY: It’s been called “thuggery.” I think that’s important, because we are speaking to the home secretary and other politicians this morning.

ED BALLS: Keir Starmer definitely said “racist” over the weekend.

KATE GARRAWAY: Why does that matter to you to use the word “Islamophobic”?

ZARAH SULTANA: In Stockport, a mosque was targeted. Bricks were thrown out. The people who were in the mosque at that time, who were basically locked down in that mosque, said that they feared for their life. They wanted —

ED BALLS: But Keir Starmer has condemned that.

ZARAH SULTANA: — to get out. I’m just finishing the —

ED BALLS: No, no, I know. No, but I mean —

ZARAH SULTANA: I’m just finishing the answer.

ED BALLS: Hang on. Hang on.

KATE GARRAWAY: I did ask her specifically about the word, Ed. So I think that —

ZARAH SULTANA: Can I finish, Ed, if that’s OK?

AMY GOODMAN: Faiza, if you can take it from there?

FAIZA SHAHEEN: Yeah, I saw that. And what happened was, really, she was blocked from talking. She was interrupted. She was laughed at. It was like on live — like live bullying on TV. And she’s an MP, elected twice now, and was made to feel and look like she was talking rubbish, you know, when she was talking about Islamophobia and talking about these very real experiences. And there was a huge reaction to that. They had a huge number of complaints made about that show, because it was bullying and it was dismissive.

And that sort of implicit, or even explicit, Islamophobia is just so prevalent. You know, I did a radio show yesterday where I was talking about Islamophobia and was immediately said — immediately told that, “Oh, well, it’s because the far right are emboldened because of pro-Palestine marches,” and been asked to talk about antisemitism. You know, there’s not really much space to be able to really look at this problem for what it is. And this is why we have a real challenge now going forward.

Yes, it’s amazing to see people out in the street. That’s really just the first step. You know, we don’t have — I lived in New York for a little while, and I was really — it was really noticeable to me how much more organized the antiracist movement is there than here. We haven’t pushed back enough on the media. We do have a government that is already saying, you know, that they might have a point and we need to strike a balance, you know, which is outrageous. So, this is a longer-term fight. Otherwise, these far-right issues are going to keep happening. And we really do need to organize in our communities from the grassroots up.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much for being with us, Faiza Shaheen, a visiting professor of practice at the London School of Economics, speaking to us from London.

Coming up, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem is accusing the Israeli government of running network of torture camps for Palestinian prisoners. Stay with us.