By Mehmet Solmaz
BIRMINGHAM, England (AA) — Many residents in the city of Birmingham feared tense scenes and even violence on Wednesday afternoon in the wake of far-right riots that have roiled the country over the past week.
Several far-right groups were planning to gather outside a local refugee center, but dozens of counter-protesters rallied outside the facility, situated across from the city’s historic Chamberlain Clock, to take a stand against racism and anti-migrant sentiment.
In the end, the far-right groups did not turn up, allowing the city and the center to take a sigh of relief.
Members of the Stand Up To Racism platform delivered remarks on loudspeakers at the event, which had become a peaceful show of solidarity for minority groups, refugees, and migrants in the country.
“Fascist scum, out of Brum (Birmingham)!” the crowd chanted.
Birmingham, a multicultural melting pot of about 1.2 million residents, is home to more than 300,000 Muslims. Minority groups here have been vocal about the discrimination and physical attacks they have faced in their daily lives.
This would have been the first far-right event in the city since riots have gripped other parts of the UK, with violent mobs spewing racist and Islamophobic vitriol and targeting Muslims, minority groups and migrants.
The riots were fueled by online misinformation that the suspect arrested in Southport after the fatal stabbing of three children last week was a Muslim asylum seeker, a claim which was false.
Andrew, a local resident, told Anadolu that what the UK has been witnessing over the past several days has been “scary and disgusting.”
“Our city is very diverse. We just want to show that far-right and fascists who are coming down don’t represent us and represent our city.”
- Government and media to blame
Luke, a resident of nearby Dudley, said the unrest had left members of ethnic minorities in his area alarmed to the point that they could not take their children outside in the past week.
He said the media and the authorities have been scapegoating migrants and people of color.
“The way things are framed is, ‘these people over here are to blame for your problems’,” he said, adding that while the root cause was that “people are frustrated,” this was due to spending cuts and an ongoing cost of living crisis.
He also blamed high-profile far-right figures like Tommy Robinson, the head of an anti-Muslim xenophobic fascist group called the English Defense League, for inciting racist violence.
“It’s like shaking a bottle of pop and someone like Tommy Robinson is, I wouldn't say so much taking the lid off the bottle, but shooting into it and letting it blow.”
Christine, who joined the counter-protest from Wolverhampton, said she was at another demonstration in Tamworth after a group of far-right demonstrators set a hotel there ablaze.
She stressed the need for public shows of rejection towards the activities of the far right, calling on authorities to bring those responsible to justice for torching the hotel that housed asylum seekers.
Christine said one of her friends was hurt by a firework shortly before the hotel was set on fire.
“I blame the government, the present government, as well as the previous Tory government, because they’re using the rhetoric of immigration to try and solve the problems that are happening. And it’s not immigrants. It's not the boats.
“We’ve got a huge, big crisis, and they’re just looking for soft targets to deflect,” Christine said.
- Strong tradition of fighting fascism
Dave, who was at the demonstration with his wife, said he had been vocal about injustice and far-right fanaticism for decades and that this ideology had no place in Birmingham.
“It is frightening, but I think we've always had a good tradition here of fighting fascism,” he said.
“Going right back, I was involved in actions against racism, actions against the far right back in the 70s and 80s, when we had groups like the anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism and we're trying to do now what we did then, which is get out on the streets and stop the fascists wherever they go. And you find that most communities will come together to stop the fascists.”
According to Dave, the issue of immigration is being “whipped up by the likes of” Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage, a politician and lawmaker who leads the far-right political party Reform UK, as well as former home ministers like Suella Braverman and Priti Patel. Both have made a name for themselves with their anti-migrant stance.
“They have been part of the cause. They keep going on about stopping the boats, making out that refugees are a problem when it’s not, when the problem lies with our ruling-class people, the people who got the power, people who got the money and it’s them and the media that whip up hatred against asylum seekers,” he said.