Britain has been convulsed by violence for the past week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans clashed with police.
The disturbances have been fuelled by right-wing activists using social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.
The violence, some of Britain's worst in years, has led to hundreds of arrests as the government pledges that the rioters will feel "the full force of the law" after bricks and other projectiles at police, looting shops and attacking hotels used to house asylum-seekers.
As Britain's new government struggles to quell the unrest and announces a "standing army" of specialist police to deal with rioting, here's a look at what's happening and why.
People across Britain were shocked by what police described as a "ferocious knife attack" that killed three girls between 6 and 9 on July 29 in Southport, a seaside town north of Liverpool. Eight other children and two adults were injured.
Police detained a 17-year-old suspect. Rumours, later debunked, quickly circulated on social media that the suspect was an asylum-seeker, or a Muslim immigrant.
The next day, as people gathered to comfort one another and lay flowers at the site, hundreds of protesters attacked a local mosque with bricks, bottles and rocks.
Police said the rioters were "believed to be supporters of the English Defence League", a far-right group that has organised anti-Muslim protests since 2009.
Authorities on August 1 took the unusual step of identifying the underage suspect in an effort to stop the rumours about his identity, which were fuelling the violence.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. The suspect was born in Wales in 2006 and moved to the Southport area in 2013. His parents were originally from Rwanda.
How did the violence spread?
The rioting spread to cities and towns in many parts of the UK as far-right activists circulated misinformation about the attack, according to the government and police.
Less than two hours after the stabbing, a social media user known as European Invasion said the attacker was "alleged to be a Muslim immigrant".
The rumour was included in an article published by Channel 3Now, a site with suspected links to Russia, Logically said. The article was then cited by Russian state-affiliated news organizations including RT and Tass.
"It is likely that Channel 3Now is a Russian asset aimed at seeding information intended to cause online harm and create division in the UK," Logically said in analysis posted on X.
Social media videos encourage like-minded people to engage in the types of unrest they see online, said Stephanie Alice Baker, a sociologist at City University of London who studies crowd behaviour and the far right.
"There is always a tipping point where people feel emboldened and enabled to act on those feelings, and it's typically when they see others doing the same thing, right?'' she said.
Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/whats-behind-the-anti-immigrant-violence-that-has-exploded-across-britain-heres-a-look/articleshow/112309949.cms
