‘Violent UK riots linked to anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by war on Gaza’

Growing anti-Muslim sentiments following the start of the Gaza war have fuelled Britain’s worst riots in nearly 13 years, two academics have said after far-right vandals left a trail of destruction across major cities in the country.

Hundreds of people – including security personnel – have been injured in violent clashes between police and far-right rioters, who also attacked mosques and looted stores.

As anti-war and pro-Palestinian protests have been the focus of hateful anti-Muslim comments in British media and politics since the start of the Gaza war, many believe that the long-standing rhetoric has set the stage for the rise in hate.

The protests, considered the most violent in the country since the 2011 riots after a Black man in north London was shot dead by police, were sparked by a stabbing attack in Southport city that killed three young girls and wounded several other children.

Wild conspiracy theories, amplified by radical far-right leaders with large followers, had claimed that the suspect was a Muslim asylum-seeker.

It was later revealed that the accused, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was born in the UK to Christian Rwandan parents.

The violent protests began with mobs attacking a mosque in Southport, where the stabbing took place, and clashing with police.

Despite the suspect not being Muslim, far-right groups blamed immigrants and Muslims, spreading riots across cities such as Nottingham, Hull, Bristol, Manchester, and Stoke-on-Trent.

Over the past week, far-right attackers targeted a Quran stall in Liverpool, attacked businesses, set cars, a building, and trash bins on fire in Belfast, and attacked a hotel sheltering asylum seekers in Birmingham.

These events prompted hundreds of Muslim groups and places of worship across the country to step up security.

Earlier this year, it was reported that anti-Muslim hate incidents in the country more than tripled in the four months following the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Xenophobic influence operation

A Reuters news agency analysis said that the claim the suspect was an asylum seeker or immigrant has been viewed at least 15.7 million times across social media platforms.

Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer at Nottingham Law School, observes that the same online accounts spreading hatred against Palestinians are now inciting the riots.

This suggests the possibility of an organised network of disinformation designed to spread Islamophobia and trigger these events, according to Daniele.

He cites a recent study, The Qatar Plot, which suggests a “sprawling, multi-modal, two-wave influence operation spreading xenophobic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Qatar propaganda” across social media platforms.

The study, which revealed that the operation began in 2023 and reached at least 41 million online users, indicates that it was likely the largest known Facebook influence campaign targeting European countries.

Pointing out the possibility of a similar operation behind the UK riots, the international law expert tells TRT World that “the same accounts that previously called for the killing of Palestinians are now claiming, ‘Do you want us to be stopped by Muslim immigrants?’”

Reuters also reported that another analysis by Channel 4 revealed that 49 percent of the traffic on Twitter referencing “Southport Muslim” came from the United States, and only 30 percent originated from Britain.

United hate

The dehumanisation narrative in European politics, especially surrounding Gaza, is closely linked to the rhetoric fuelling the current anti-immigration, anti-Muslim riots across the UK, according to Shahab Saqib, a lecturer at Leicester Law School.

Nigel Farage, a firebrand anti-immigration British politician and leader of Reform UK, has come under heavy criticism for his response to the Southport stabbings, with accusations of “inciting a riot.”

After the attack, Farage questioned in a video interview with GBNews why the stabbing incident was not being classified as terrorism and whether the “truth is being withheld from us”.

Merseyside Police promptly clarified that the “incident is not currently being treated as terror-related”. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner condemned Farage for “stoking up conspiracy theories” about the attack.

In February, Conservative MP Lee Anderson claimed that "Islamists" had "taken control" of the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, coinciding with massive weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the capital.

In response, Khan condemned the remarks as "fuelling anti-Muslim hatred," resulting in Anderson's suspension from the party for refusing to apologise.

In the same month, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed in a The Telegraph article that “Islamists are bullying Britain into submission” and that the influence of “Islamist cranks and leftwing extremists” are in the country’s judiciary, legal profession and universities.

She also described the anti-war protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as “hate marches.”

Shahab Saqib suggests that the unified xenophobic discourse extends beyond the European far-right.

He notes that during the ICJ case involving Israel, Tel Aviv’s lawyers presented “evidence” on the October 7 incidents, including an audio recording claiming to show how Hamas was brutally treating women.

“However, this audio was sourced from India, which was surprising given that Israel was controlling the narrative. It was startling to see how content from India was used in the ICJ proceedings,” he tells TRT World.

“This is all related; the discourse is connected and comes from the same groups around the world.”

United resistance

Experts suggest that recognising that hateful rhetoric originates from the same sources with similar agendas shows us that the global fight against hate must also be united.

The root idea of Islamophobia —portraying Muslims as enemies of society— in both the UK and the US aligns with the interests of the Israeli government, as it fuels their justification for the colonisation of Palestine, Daniele says.

“This creates a dangerous synergy between the brutality of the Israeli government and the Islamophobic racism of European far-right elements. To counter this, we need to form global alliances of anti-racist civil society, uniting across national boundaries.”

“If domination is operating in a constructed and concocted manner, then resistance must also work in a similar way,” adds Saqib.

It is reported that in Leeds, around 150 people with English flags chanted, "You're no longer English," while in Liverpool, some hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators chanted, "Refugees are welcome here" and "Nazi scum, off our streets."

The anti-racism group “Hope Not Hate” organised over 30 events for the past weekend.