Thread by @MrBenSellers

🧵 Just to recap, because events move so fast, it’s hard to make sense of them: firstly, a group of far right politicians, social media ‘names’ & organised fascists jumped on a tragedy to claim that the person responsible for the carnage in Southport was a Muslim / refugee. 1/13

The exploitation of the tragedy by the right began the moment people like Farage, Grimes & Robinson started to ‘cast doubt’, talking about a cover up & how the country had had enough. The logic being, if it was a Muslim, that crime would justify the tarring of all Muslims. 2/13

There was absolutely no proof for any of this, not that it mattered to these far right ‘leaders’. Police information on the suspect was leaked in an attempt to quell the rumours, declaring that he was born in Cardiff & had Rwandan parents. But the die had been cast. 3/13

Then came the violence in Southport, organised by the far right. When challenged about the rioting, these people (led by the likes of Robinson, Golding etc) argued that the violence had flared because a Muslim had brought a machete to the vigil. Again, there was no proof. 4/13

That rumour was proved wrong on a few counts. Firstly, there was no machete - instead a flick knife & secondly, the man arrested was named as Jordan Davies from
Standish (who lives in Southport). Social media posts reveal him to have far right sympathies & not a Muslim. 5/13

The person arrested for the stabbings in Southport was named as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, as reporting restrictions were lifted - again, in an attempt to establish that the perpetrator of these horrific acts was not a Muslim. None of this mattered to the far right. 6/13

We were told that whatever the truth was about Southport, the issues were about the Rochdale grooming gangs, violence against women by refugees, youths carrying machetes etc. These are the same themes that have been exploited by the far right for years. 7/13

The far right method is always the same: take examples of criminality, racialise them, make them seem like a pattern, ignoring the fact that anti-social behaviour, violence, sexual & otherwise, gang culture etc happens in all communities & all societies, in different ways. 8/13

In the meantime, more violence flared on Whitehall, in Hartlepool, in Sunderland & people kept marching towards mosques, as if those institutions were somehow ‘responsible’. We heard racist chanting, social media full of fascist rhetoric & racist attacks with our own eyes. 9/13

So, from a complete fabrication about the responsibility for the awful events in Southport on Monday, a whole far right narrative has been created - designed to target Muslim communities & immigrants in general. This, of course, has wider impacts for anyone non-white. 10/13

We have a weekend ahead of us with ‘protests’ based on lies. Of course, there are underlying tensions - no one should deny that - about communities being abandoned. But the racist far right have manipulated those grievances & turned them into a campaign against Muslims. 11/13

What’s especially worrying is the targeting of places of worship & community centres designed to be a focal point for communities - Muslim & non-Muslim - that don’t have a lot. People will find their own way to protect themselves, but for many that will mean hiding away. 12/13

That’s no way for a society to be. It has to be a source of deep shame that people who are already marginalised in our societies are now living in fear of violence by angry mobs, goaded on my reckless, poisonous ‘spokespeople’ for a politics of hate. We have to stop this. 13/13

*by not my