There is nothing new about race riots. When have they not happened, except in homogeneous societies? If you have more than one ethnicity in your society, won’t they clash? If not, why not? Whether or not you call them race riots might well depend on who you’re siding with, but if it involves some public violence, and ethnicity is a factor, let’s just call it a race riot. Unless their cultures are very much aligned, won’t two ethnicities always clash? Below is a list and description of the major race riots in the UK over recent years. There are instances of ethnic minorities clashing with the police, as well as:
2001 Yorkshire – English v Pakistani Muslims.
2005 Birmingham – Blacks v Pakistani Muslims.
2011 London – Blacks v Police.
2020 UK – Woke White people v Police (mostly)
2022 Leicester – Hindus v Pakistanis Muslims.
2024 England – English v Asian and African immigration.
If you’ve spotted a pattern, please don’t tell me about it.
Host nation resentment to a large scale immigration, which it never voted for, might be expected, but clashes between ethnic minority groups do somewhat clash with the idea that systemic and institutional racism are the problem. The truth is, we’re all at it.
In the accounts that follow, all sourced from Wikipedia, and in Wikipedia’s own words, several tropes jump right out you. When ‘White’ people are involved (The accounts never say English), far right and neo-Nazi groups are always blamed for leading gullible ’White’ people astray, like they were too thick to know what they were doing. I’m not buying that.
There is also an apparent dearth of extremist black, Hindu or Muslim organisations connected with these incidents. Politicians can’t blame ordinary English people for these riots, or they might lose voters. Voters switching sides was evidenced in the aftermath of clashes between Indians and Pakistanis in Leicester in 2022. The Labour Party lost power in one local authority because of it.
Related Links:
https://notwokedot.com/origins-of-racial-prejudice/
https://notwokedot.com/zero-growth-the-economic-benefit-of-mass-immigration/
https://notwokedot.com/life-under-the-dictatorship-of-minority-rights/
https://notwokedot.com/what-if-stephen-lawrence-had-been-white/
https://notwokedot.com/the-fall-of-the-ussr-and-how-favouring-ethnic-minorities-brought-this-about/
2001 Oldham riots (Wikipedia)
England v Pakistan
“The Oldham riots were the first of a series of major riots during summer 2001, which saw similar ethnic conflicts follow in Bradford, Leeds and Burnley.
They were particularly intensive in Glodwick, an area to the south-east of Oldham town centre. They were highly violent and led to the use of petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other such projectiles by up to five-hundred Asian youths as they battled against lines of riot police.
At least 20 people were injured in the riots, including fifteen officers, and 37 people were arrested. Other parts of Oldham such as Coppice and Westwood were also involved.
On Saturday 26 May, the Live and Let Live pub, which was occupied at the time, was pelted with bricks, stones and petrol bombs. Several cars were set ablaze including an occupied police van. Lines of riot police were drafted in to combat the spiralling violence. Several officers were injured, and 32 police vehicles were damaged, but despite the level of violence and arson, there were no fatalities. On 28 May 2001, the headquarters of the local newspaper, the Oldham Evening Chronicle, was attacked. A large group of Asian rioters threw a petrol bomb into the premises and smashed three plate-glass windows.
Just weeks after the riots, the then Deputy-Mayor of Oldham, Riaz Ahmad, became a victim of arson when someone threw a petrol bomb at his house in Chadderton, setting it ablaze. Mr.Ahmad, his wife and four children were all in the house sleeping at the time, but all escaped without any injuries.
The disturbances received extensive coverage from local, national and international media, including the BBC and other television networks and several tabloids and broadsheets. “The exact causes of the Oldham riots are widely disputed, with blame being placed and denied by various groups. What is understood is that the riots stemmed from multiple causes and incidents, both historic and short-term.”
In the year leading up to the riots, there were 572 reported ethnicity-related crimes in the Oldham area, and in 60% of these, white persons were recorded as being the victims.
The report, published on 11 December 2001, was a 102-page document, addressed to the people of Oldham and was the sum total of much evidence gathering, including the interviewing of some 915 people and over 200 group meetings with local residents and governmental bodies. The Ritchie Report largely blamed deep-rooted segregation, which authorities had failed to address for generations, as the cause of the Oldham Riots and its prior and subsequent inter-ethnic problems. It warned: “Segregation, albeit self-segregation, is an unacceptable basis for a harmonious community and it will lead to more serious problems if it is not tackled.””
NotWoke: Segregation, albeit self-segregation is a form of apartheid, but you can’t have multiculturalism without segregation.
https://notwokedot.com/multiculturalism-is-racist/
https://notwokedot.com/no-irish-no-dogs-no-whites-the-scam-of-inclusivity
2001 Bradford riots – Wikipedia
Pakistan v England
“The Bradford Riots were a brief period of violent rioting which began on 7 July 2001, in Bradford, West Yorkshire. They occurred as a result of heightened tension between the large and growing Pakistani communities and English people.
Tensions rose after the National Front attempted to organise a march in the city which was banned by Home Secretary David Blunkett under the Public Order Act 1986. The Anti-Nazi League organised a rally in Centenary Square in the centre of the city, which was allowed to proceed. During the course of the rally, held on Saturday 7 July, a rumour was spread by some of the marchers that National Front sympathisers were gathering at a pub in the centre of Bradford. A confrontation then occurred outside the pub in the city centre during which an Asian man was stabbed. According to the appeal court, this incident almost certainly triggered the riot.
The riot was estimated to have involved 1,000 youths. On the nights of 8 and 9 July 2001,groups of between thirty and a hundred white youths attacked police and Asian-owned businesses, in the Ravenscliffe and Holmewood areas. Initially there were 500 police being involved, but later reinforcements increased this to almost 1,000. What began as a riot turned into an ethnic-related disturbance, with targeting of businesses and cars, along with numerous attacks on shops and property. A notable point of the rioting was the firebombing of Manningham Labour Club, at the time a recreational centre. A 48-year-old Asian businessman was jailed for 12 years for the arson attack.
More than 300 police officers were hurt during the riot. There were 297 arrests in total; 187 people were charged with the offence of riot, 45 with violent disorder and 200 jail sentences totalling 604years were handed down. The last rioter was sentenced six-and-a-half years after the events. The number of convictions for riot was unprecedented in English legal history.”
Spatial Criminology – A Deep Dive into Diversity and Crime – Not Woke
2001 Leeds-Harehills riot – Wikipedia
Police v Bangladeshi with no tax disc
“On 5 June 2001, a riot broke out in the Harehills area of Leeds, England, triggered by the allegedly wrongful and heavy-handed arrest of Hossein Miah, an Asian man, by West Yorkshire Police. More than 200 people, predominantly Asian youths, were involved in the seven-hour-long clash against the police, which continued into the early hours of 6 June. Numerous people – 23 police officers and two journalists – were injured in the incident, and 25 rioters were jailed as a result. The police officer who arrested Miah was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
After the arrest, at 20:25 BST on Tuesday, 5 June, a hoax 999 call was made saying a police officer had been hit by a petrol bomb. Sporadic unrest had reportedly already begun in the area by that point. The police could not locate the alleged petrol bombing, however the call lured them into Banstead Park, where they were met by a barricade of burning washing machines and furniture, looted from a nearby second-hand shop.
It was in Banstead Park where most of the confrontation took place, although the disturbances spread onto Roundhay Road, Roseville Road and smaller residential streets towards the south side of Harehills. Rioting continued into the early hours of the following morning. Over the course of the night, 26 cars were burnt out, two police officers and two journalists were severely injured, and a shop was set alight. Both police officers and members of the public were pelted with bottles and bricks. 23 police officers were later reported to have been injured.”
Criminology Theories around Diversity – Not Woke
Burnley Riots 2001 – Local Press
England v Pakistan
“THE OUTBREAK of riots in Burnley on a warm Summer’s evening in 2001 had been along time in the making. The violent scenes that saw cars and buildings go up in flames were the culmination of many years simmering racial tensions stoked by far-right activists from the British National Party and National Front.
The role of the police would also be called into question, both during the course of the two days and afterwards, with the lessons Lancashire Constabulary say they have learned proving to be one of the riots’ most significant legacies. East Division Operations Manager Superintendent Abid Khan said: “In the last 20 years significant work has gone into developing a policing model that best reflects the communities we serve to ensure the resources are in the right place to keep people safe and bring those who commit crime to justice.”
A timeline of events in late June 2001:
Saturday
5am – A white man is stabbed outside a house in Francis Street, Daneshouse. Nine cars are damaged.
5am – An off duty Asian taxi driver is attacked by three white men in Colne Road. He suffers a fractured jaw and other injuries. Police later come in for criticism for allegedly responding more slowly to the attack on the Asian man than the white man.
11pm – Police receive reports of Asian youths gathering in Abel Street. Police confront
them and missiles are thrown. Duke of York pub comes under attack.
More than 200 specialist police were involved in the night’s operation with two pubs were closed.
Sunday
6pm – A white gang gathers near Turf Moor and attacks shops in the vicinity. Police close off the area.
7.30pm – Fighting in lower Colne Road between white and Asian groups.
10.30pm – Duke of York pub is firebombed.
10.40pm – Police form a human blockade around the pub to protect firefighters.
11pm onwards – Police report sporadic flare-ups in Stoneyholme but rival groups are kept apart.
11.30pm – Further fighting between mounted police and Asian youths. Two cars torched.
Monday
8.30pm – Shahid Malik, son of deputy mayor Rafik Malik says he was injured by a police officer while trying to calm youths on Abel Street. Violence eases but three late night arson attacks, on Burnley Car Dismantlers’ scrap yard in Arch Street, an Indian restaurant in Hapton, and a car in Holme Road, Stoneyholme, are linked with the previous weekend’s troubles. 22 people are arrested over the course of the night.“
BBC: “ Police investigations concluded the disturbances in Burnley started when two gangs of Asian and white youths were involved in a fight. Four Asian men were found guilty of violent disorder in October 2002.The government commissioned the “Community Cohesion Review”, chaired by Ted Cantle, after a summer of racial violence in towns across the north-west of England.”
NotWoke: The report found the Burnley disturbances had been sparked by a war between Asian and white drug gangs – rather than being”race riots” – and were exacerbated by “grinding poverty”. But it also said the clashes had been exploited by organised white racists.”
2005 Birmingham riots – Wikipedia
Pakistan v West Indies
“The Birmingham riots of 2005 occurred on two consecutive nights on Saturday 22 October and Sunday 23 October 2005 in the Lozells and Handsworth area of Birmingham, The riots were derived from ethnic tensions between the Caribbean and Pakistani communities, with the spark for the riot being an alleged gang rape of a teenage black girl by a group of Pakistani men.
The rape allegation has never been substantiated. No evidence has been found to support the rumour nor has any victim come forward (further rumours asserted that this was because the victim was present in Britain unlawfully and feared deportation). The clashes involved groups of Caribbean and Pakistani men committing serious acts of violence against various targets from both communities. The riots were also connected to the deaths of two black men, 23-year-old Isaiah Young-Sam and 18-year-old Aaron James.
The alleged rape rumours involved a 14-year-old girl of Jamaican heritage attempting to shoplift from a branch of “Beauty Queen Cosmetics”. The girl was then raped by a group of eight to nineteen Pakistani origin men. Afraid of being deported due to her illegal immigrant status the girl supposedly refused to provide a statement to the police. The police appealed for any evidence of the event occurring and stated at the very least her immigrant status would not be an issue until after the allegations had been dealt with.
Despite the appeal, forensic searches and questioning of several individuals, the allegations have never been substantiated and no witnesses have come forward, nor was the girl ever identified.
Local pirate radio stations, most notably Hot 92 along with one of its DJs ‘Warren G’ discussed the details of the alleged rape and a picket was set up outside the premises of the shop in question. There were also calls for boycotts of other British Asian businesses. Ajaib Hussein, 33, the shop-owner denied the event ever occurred and blamed business rivals for starting the rumour. A public meeting was held on Saturday 22 October at the New Testament Church of God.
At around 17:45 the meeting ended and violence erupted outside. Gangs of men fought running battles and at 19:15 Isaiah Young-Sam, who later died, was stabbed. Young-Sam had not been present at the meeting, or been involved in the running battles between gangs of youths, he had been at a cinema in the city centre with friends before being forced off his bus home due to it being diverted because of the public disorder. As he and his friends made their way on foot down a side street they were confronted by a group of Asian Youths who chased them down and stabbed Isaiah. As the night progressed the police recorded 80 offences occurring. Rioting also occurred to a lesser extent during the night of 23 October. Between 30 and 50 individuals were thought to be involved in the most serious incidents.
Three men were convicted, but after a subsequent retrial acquitted of the murder of Isaiah Young-Sam. A man pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Aaron James. In July 2007 six people were convicted of various offences related to the riots; four men were subsequently jailed in November 2007. In May 2008 four men were convicted for a being part of a mob that confronted and threatened a fire crew with firearms and machetes. “
Killing of Mark Duggan 2011 – Wikipedia
Black v Police
“Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old mixed-race British man, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London on 4 August 2011. The Metropolitan Police stated that officers were attempting to arrest Duggan on suspicion of planning an attack and that he was in possession of a handgun. Duggan died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The circumstances of Duggan’s death resulted in public protests in Tottenham, which led to conflict with police and escalated into riots across London and other English cities.
Mark Duggan was born on 15 September 1981 and grew up in Broadwater Farm, north London. His parents were of mixed Irish and African-Caribbean descent. Between the ages of 12 and 17, he lived with his maternal aunt Carole in Manchester. His maternal aunt Julie was married to Manchester gangland boss Desmond Noonan.
At the time of his death, Duggan had fathered three children aged 10 years, 7 years, and 18 months with his long-term partner Semone Wilson, had fathered a fourth child with a second woman, and was expecting with a third woman, delivered posthumously, fathering a total of six children. He was 30 years old. News of Duggan’s death was publicised quickly. Soon after Duggan was shot, an image was posted on Facebook showing police standing over a body that may have been his. Outrage about the police killing quickly escalated
There was a long history of tension between black communities and the police before and since the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985, in which, according to David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, the “cracks that already existed between the police and the community became deep fissures”. Since 1985 “there had been some progress made in the relationship between the local community and the police”, but the shooting “raised tension”. Lammy stated that Duggan’s death occurred as part of “a history in Tottenham that involves deaths in police custody”. Claudia Webbe, the chairperson of Operation Trident,[ asserted that many black people see Duggan’s shooting as “yet another unjust death in custody” and that young black people in Tottenham are “still six, seven, eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts”.
Black British novelist Alex Wheatle, who served a term of imprisonment for crimes he committed in the 1981 Brixton riot, asserted that there was “a deep aggravation” that despite many black deaths in police custody there had never been a conviction of a police officer.
At about 17:30 BST on 6 August 2011, Duggan’s relatives and local residents marched from Broadwater Farm to Tottenham Police Station. The demonstrators chanted “we want answers” and requested information from police about the circumstances of Duggan’s death. They also made broader demands for “Justice”, seeking to publicise ongoing poor relations with police in their community.
A chief inspector spoke with the demonstrators, who demanded to see a higher-ranking officer. About 20:00 BST, a 16-year-old girl approached them and may have thrown a leaflet or a stone. Police swarmed the girl with shields and batons, allegedly causing head injuries. At about 20:20 BST, members of the waiting crowd attacked two nearby police cars, setting them on fire.
Rioting, arson and looting spread to other parts of London, and to elsewhere in England. Rioters expressed mixed motivations for rioting, including policing issues, poverty, and racial tension with police. On 7 January 2014 an inquest jury concluded (by an 8–2 majority) that Duggan’s death was a lawful killing.
Several violent clashes with police followed Duggan’s death, along with the destruction of police vehicles, a double-decker bus and many homes and businesses, which rapidly gained the attention of the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale retail park and in nearby Wood Green. The following days saw similar scenes in other parts of London, with the worst rioting taking place in Hackney, Brixton, Walthamstow, Wandsworth, Peckham, Enfield, Battersea, Croydon, Ealing, Barking, Woolwich, Lewisham and East Ham.
From 8 to 11 August, other towns and cities in England (including Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham) faced what was described by the media as “copycat violence”, with social media playing a role. By 10 August, more than 3,000 arrests had been made across England, with at least 1,984 people facing criminal charges for various offences related to the riots. Initially, courts sat for extended hours. A total of 3,443 crimes across London were linked to the disorder. Along with the five deaths, at least 16 others were injured as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.
Significant debate was generated among political, social, and academic figures about the causes and context of the riots. Attributions for the rioters’ behaviour included social factors such as racial tension, class tension, economic decline and its consequent unemployment.”
George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom 2020 – Wikipedia
Woke White people v Police (mostly)
“Many protests received endorsement and support from local councils and politicians, including in Liverpool and Oxford. The majority of protests in the United Kingdom were peaceful, although notable clashes between protesters and police occurred on multiple occasions in central London. There were also notable cases of vandalism of historical statues, including graffiti sprayed on the plinth of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square. In Bristol, protesters toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston from its pedestal and then pushed it into the harbour on 7 June. Subsequently, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan established the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm in order to investigate whether statues on display in London were still suitable for the modern-day. The George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom were the largest outside the United States.
On 3 June a large demonstration took place in Hyde Park in central London, attended by hundreds of people. Aerial photos of the protest showed that the participants were largely adhering to social distancing rules, and the Metropolitan Police allowed the protest to progress without incident. Actor John Boyega attended the protest and gave a notable speech, calling out police in the United States over the murder of George Floyd, and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and others, as well as police in the United Kingdom over their handling of the Stephen Lawrence case in 1993.
Demonstrators subsequently left the park and blocked traffic on Park Lane around 15:00, stopping at least ten double-decker buses before being moved along. A stencil drawing of George Floyd’s face appeared on a plinth at Speakers’ Corner. Clashes erupted later in the evening as part of the protest group advanced further into central London on their way to Parliament Square. Protesters climbed onto windowsills on the walls of the HM Treasury building, spraying Black Lives Matter graffiti on the Treasury and surrounding buildings.
At least 13 people were arrested after violent clashes broke out outside the gates to Downing Street, where tensions boiled over as the crowd had gathered to chant at Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Signs, temporary fencing, and bottles were thrown over the gates, and groups of protesters attempted to breach them. The Downing Street gates are ordinarily guarded by armed police, although these officers did not take part in the clashes.
Further violence erupted after police officers were seen throwing a black protester against a metal railing while attempting to make an arrest.
In Brighton, more than 1,000 demonstrators took part in a protest march through the city centre. Protesters gathered in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church before marching to the main central police station in Brighton. Protesters were demanding justice for George Floyd and chanted that the British law enforcement system was also systematically racist.
Etc etc etc…………..
Protesters defaced the statue of Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square and Queen Victoria’s statue in Leeds. Graffiti on the plinth of Churchill’s statue referred to him as”racist”, alluding to his controversial racial views. BLM activists in London demanded the removal of 60 statues of historical figures like Prime Ministers Charles Grey and William Gladstone, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, Sir Francis Drake, King Charles II of England, Oliver Cromwell, Cecil Rhodes and Christopher Columbus.
On 5 June, a group of protesters sprayed the abbreviation “ACAB”, meaning All Coppers Are Bastards, on the memorial to Earl Haig in Whitehall, London; when soldiers from the Household Cavalry in plain clothes scrubbed the graffiti off, protesters shouted abuse at them for doing so. The statue of Edward Colston in The Centre, Bristol was toppled and thrown into Bristol Harbour on 7 June. On the same day, a protester climbed onto The Cenotaph in London and unsuccessfully attempted to set fire to the Union Flag.
On 7 June, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in London was sprayed by Black Lives Matter protesters with the word “Racist””
See also:
HOW SADIQ KHAN BECAME ‘ENGLISH’ – Not Woke
Black Lives Matter – The Things You Wish They Hadn’t said – Not Woke
India v Pakistan
“In August and September 2022, Leicester, England, saw a period of religious and ethnic tension between predominately British Hindus and British Muslims of South Asian origin. The unrest saw rioting, protest marches, sloganeering and ethnic violence between the two populations. It was also preceded by social media campaigning, misinformation and hate propaganda.
Muslim apprehensions of what they alleged as “Hindutva fascism” entering their neighbourhoods was evidently the main driver behind the unrest. Community leaders and analysts point to the Indian celebrations following the India–Pakistan 2022 Asia Cup match on 28 August as a catalyst, which saw a reaction from Pakistani fans
After the 28 August India–Pakistan Asia Cup cricket match, which India won, Indian cricket fans poured onto streets in the Belgrave area to celebrate, waving Indian flags, honking car horns and dancing to dhols. An altercation eventually occurred at the corner of the Shaftesbury Avenue and Melton Road. According to a local business owner, “someone anti-India” stamped on an Indian flag, and the Indian fans thought he was a Pakistani and got infuriated.
A video of this incident is available and the man is reported to be a Sikh. The altercation developed into a brawl, a video clip of which went viral on social media the next day. The clip shows a group of India fans shouting “Pakistan murdabad” and walking to the clash site. A police officer is seen arresting a man, and another group is seen beating up a man, and ripping off his t-shirt. The incident eventually led to eight arrests, including one man arrested at the scene for assaulting an emergency worker
Between 4–6 September, anti-Hindu attacks began to be reported from Leicester. On 5 September, there was a meeting about the incidents attended by over 300 people along with police representatives. After the meeting, a group of Muslims conducted a march through Leicester to show their “presence”. It was reported that clashes and stand-offs with the police lasted till 11pm.
On 6 September, Leicester Police were authorised to use dispersal (Sections 34 and 35) and stop-and-search (Section 60) powers. They continued to patrol the areas, but further disturbances also continued. By 11 September, 19 people had been arrested for incidents in East Leicester, one of them for threats to kill.
A Muslim author Riaz Khan, with 25,000 followers, linked the incident from May to the cricket match brawl and described the participants of the latter as the same “thugs”. Another user with 600,000 subscribers, advised the India fans in the UK to “humble themselves” because the Pakistani gangs over here “go a bit nuts”. The most virulent misinformation came from Majid Freeman, who claimed that there was a kidnap attempt of a Muslim school girl by three Hindu men. He claimed that he had spoken to the girl’s family and that the police had “confirmed” it. Leicester city police denied the claim quite emphatically. But the misinformation continued to circulate on social media.
A British Pakistani influencer called “Dutch Raja” (Norman Khan from Birmingham), who had 150,000 followers, posted the picture along with a poll asking, “Shall we go Saturday [to] teach these guys a lesson?”; 95% of the respondents voted yes. Thus, Saturday the 17th April was set as the date for Muslim mobilisation.
The weekend of 17–19 September, which was reserved for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, witnessed a large number of incidents which were described by the British press as “violent disorder”.
Saturday, 17 September, began with a peace march organised by Hindus to show solidarity with the victims of the violence in the preceding weeks. The march began on Belgrave Road. The march is said to have been conducted on foot paths, and was overseen by the local police. Despite it being a supervised march, Muslims in East Leicester said they were intimidated and felt threatened.
According to the police, a second “unplanned protest” was formed after this, by “groups of young men” Police said it numbered 600–700 men (apparently Muslims). The police scrambled about 100 officers to keep the two groups apart
On Sunday, 18 September, the police got ready for handling further disturbances by recalling officers from Queen’s funeral duties in London. An unauthorised protest was held by Muslims on this day, which is said to have been widely advertised on WhatsApp. Police oversaw the march, which apparently concluded without any incident. An Islamist preacher named Mohammed Hijab from London arrived in Leicester. He posted videos of himself inciting Muslims with anti-Hindu rhetoric and asking them to retaliate. The men agreed and chanted “Allah-o-Akbar”. According to reports, the police dispersed their march, but once again, disorder broke out at other locations, this time in North Evington. Police put in place a temporary police cordon and arrested 15 people.
On the whole, 47 people were arrested since the beginning of 28 August. Of these 11 people were reported to be from outside Leicester, one from Market Harborough, eight from Birmingham and two from London. The mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby said that the unrest was “fanned by some very distorted social media” and “a lot of people who came in from outside”
Misinformation continued to flow on social media even during the weekend. One rumour said that Hindus had attacked a mosque. Despite the police debunking the claim, it continued to circulate on social media. Another said that the Hindu temple in Ealing Road (London) arranged a bus from Angel Tours to transport Hindutva RSS members to Leicester to mobilise violence against Muslims. The claim was debunked by a journalist of The Guardian. Analysts also found anti-Muslim disinformation during the weekend, in particular a claim that a Hindu temple in Birmingham was burnt down, using images of an unrelated event.
Tensions continued into the following week, with the unrest spreading from Leicester to the Birmingham area on Tuesday 20 September. Video footage showed nearly 200 Muslim men surrounding the Durga Bhawan Temple in Smethwick, a neighbourhood where almost one-in-four residents are Asian, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’. They were voicing their anger at the temple for inviting a controversial Hindutva proponent, Sadhvi Rithambara, as a guest speaker. One video showed a masked man with a Birmingham accent say “RSS speakers are not welcome in Birmingham, not welcome anywhere in the UK. None of your speakers, any of the hate speakers, we are going to turn up for all of them…we’ve got no issues with British Hindus, we grew up with them, we know all of them. But RSS, you’ll be met by us every single time”.
Leicestershire Police continued investigations into the events of the unrest, employing a team of 50 officers. More than 100 incidents and 6,000 hours of video footage from body-worn cameras, CCTV and phone were investigated. As of September 2023, 32 people were convicted of offences including affray, threats to kill, racial or religious public order crimes and possession of weapons; Majid Freeman, who was repeatedly found to be spreading misinformation that instigated the violence, was convicted in June 2024 under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986. In July 2024, he was arrested and charged with “encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation”, apparently Hamas.
In December 2024, Mohammed Hijab filed a defamation suit against The Spectator and its editor Douglas Murray for an article on Leicester riots that allegedly defamed him. In August 2025, Hijab lost in the defamation suit. The judge ruled that Murray’s article was “substantially true”, that no “significant harm” was caused to Hijab and that Hijab lied on significant issues.
In the run-up to the 2023 Leicester City Council election, the Labour Party “deselected” a large number of its councillors, i.e., denying them a Labour Party ticket for the next election. 15 out of the 26 deselected councillors belonged to the Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) communities. All of the Hindu councillors were deselected. These councillors either joined the Conservative Party or decided to run as independents. In the 2023 election, the Labour Party saw its strength drop from 53 seats to 31 seats”
Anti-Asylum Disturbances 2024 – Wikipedia
England v Anglophobes/self-loathing Brits, England v Police, England v Pakistan
“From 30 July to 5August 2024, anti-immigration protests and riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland. This followed a mass stabbing of girls at a dance class in Southport on 29 July in which three children were killed. The riots were fuelled by a false claims that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim and an asylum seeker. The disorder included racist attacks, arson, and looting and was the largest incident of social unrest in England since 2011.
By 8 August at least 177 had been imprisoned, to an average sentence of around two years and up to a nine-years, in relation to the unrest. The following month1,280 arrests and nearly 800 charges had been made, and as of July 2025, the number of arrests increased to 1840 with 1,103 charges. The riots began in Southport, just a few streets away from where the attack took place. A demonstration outside the Southport Mosque quickly turned violent and protesters attacked police officers, injuring over fifty, burned a police van, and attacked the mosque.
Over the following days the unrest spread to other towns and cities in England and to Belfast in Northern Ireland. On 31July, over 100 protesters were arrested in London and demonstrations occurred in Manchester, Hartlepool, and Aldershot. On 2 August, rioting took place in Sunderland, where a Citizens Advice bureau was set on fire and police officers were injured and several people were arrested. The most severe rioting took place over the weekend of 3–4 August, when anti-immigration protesters clashed with police and counter-protesters, attacked homes and businesses owned by immigrants, and attacked hotels housing asylum seekers.
The riots had limited formal organisation; instead, rioters assembled around individual far-right social media personalities with the aid of far-right Telegram group chats affiliated with Active Club England, the terrorgram network, and football hooliganism firms. Groups involved in the riots included supporters of the defunct Islamophobic group English Defence League (EDL), including its former leader Tommy Robinson, members of the neo-Nazi hate group Patriotic Alternative, and the fascist political party Britain First. The riots were also supported by the neo-Nazi organisation British Movement and the far-right political party National Front. Rioters clashed with local Muslims and counter-protesters, who were mobilised by Stand Up to Racism and other anti-fascist and anti-racist groups.
The second part of a review by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary was published on 7 May 2025. It found that the participants in the riots were mostly locals and that the violence “was mainly unrelated to their ideology or political views”. The inspectors did not find any conclusive evidence that any of the activities were co-ordinated by extremist groups, but that they were mostly incited online by”disaffected individuals, influencers or groups” and that “Some of the main reasons for the widespread disorder were social deprivation, austerity and the economic downturn, political policies and decisions on migration and asylum, and decreasing trust and confidence in policing”.
The chief inspector of constabulary said that misinformation and disinformation that had been posted online had been left up for too long and that helped fuel the disorder. The chief inspector also said that the police needed more powers to be available to make it easier for misinformation and disinformation published on social media to be taken down, and that the police should counter such information by putting the known facts into the public domain sooner.”
