BELFAST: Weeks of racism-fueled unrest in Northern Ireland, fueled by unrest in English cities, are proving increasingly difficult to end, with fears that sectarian divisions in the UK region are fueling the violence.
“They burned everything, there was nothing left inside but ashes,” said Bashir, whose supermarket in Belfast was torched during attacks on shops and businesses owned by foreign nationals.
A mosque in the town near Belfast was also targeted on Friday night.
“We are afraid of what could happen next, there is a lot of hostility against the Muslim community,” said the 28-year-old Dubai resident, who did not want to give his full name for security reasons.
Northern Ireland has been experiencing nightly rioting, mainly in pro-British loyalist areas, which began after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on August 3.
The violence reflected unrest across England sparked by misinformation spread on social media about a suspect in a knife attack in Southport on July 29 that left three children dead.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said on Saturday that 31 people had been arrested during the riots.
“At a fundamental level, the attacks in Belfast are similar in dynamics to anti-immigration protests in white working-class areas in England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe,” said Peter McLaughlin, a politics lecturer at Queen's University in Belfast.
“It is driven by racism and fear of others, but in Northern Ireland it also interacts with sectarian political dynamics,” he told AFP.
Three decades of bitter sectarian conflict known as the Troubles largely ended in 1998, but bitterness and divisions persist between loyalist pro-British Protestants and Catholic nationalists who favor Irish unity.
Outside Bashir's smoky shop in the city's loyalist Sandy Row, British Union Jack flags fly on lampposts and murals proclaim fierce loyalty to Britain.
“There is a sense within Loyalists, which prevailed during the peace process in Northern Ireland, that their community is retreating, that their community and British identity is under attack,” McLaughlin explained.
Many loyalists believe they “must resist the arrival of outsiders in these areas, who are seen to be occupying ostensibly Protestant workplaces and homes and encroaching on a once-dominant community,” he added.
After last Saturday's anti-immigration protest, rioters rampaged through the streets looking to attack foreign businesses.
“What happened last week was crazy,” Yilmaz Batu, a 64-year-old Turkish chef who has lived in Northern Ireland for two years, told AFP.
“There was never a problem before,” he said, sitting in the Sahara Shisha Cafe, one of several Middle Eastern and Turkish businesses along Sandy Row that have been affected.
The Muslim Council of Northern Ireland said “the vast majority of violence is caused and fueled by deliberate disinformation and disinformation on social media”.
The attacks were fueled by “false and dangerous narratives” about Muslims, who “represent a small minority in Northern Ireland”.
Northern Ireland has a low level of immigration compared to the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The 2021 census showed that around six per cent of the population were born outside the UK or Ireland, with around 97 per cent reporting their ethnicity as white.
The riots were “very shocking to the wider community”, said Fiona Doran, chair of the group United Against Racism, which organized a solidarity rally in Belfast on Saturday.
The demonstration, which drew several thousand people, gave people “an opportunity to take to the streets to show that Belfast is a welcoming city, a city that says no to racism and fascism,” she told AFP.
At an anti-immigration rally the day before in Belfast, around a hundred demonstrators carried British flags and placards reading “Respect our country or leave!”
Some chanted the name of Tommy Robinson, a notorious anti-Muslim campaigner who is accused of helping to incite riots in England through constant social media posts about the events.
Nearby, behind rows of armored police cars, more than 1,000 counter-protesters chanted “Racists out!”
Bashir told AFP on Saturday that he was not sure if he would open his supermarket.
“My question is, can we do it? If we do, it will be thanks to all the people who came out to support us,” he said after a show of solidarity.
