Belfast: A week of racist unrest in Northern Ireland, sparked by unrest in British cities, is set to become increasingly difficult to end, with fears that sectarian divisions in the UK's regions could spill over into violence.
“They burned everything. There was nothing left inside, just ash,” said Bashir, whose supermarket in Belfast was destroyed during the attack on foreign-owned shops and businesses.
A mosque in a town near Belfast was also attacked late Friday night.
“We are scared of what might happen next. Many people are showing hostility towards the Muslim community,” said a 28-year-old man from Dubai, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
Northern Ireland has been plagued by nightly riots, particularly in pro-British areas, which began after anti-immigrant protests in Belfast on August 3.
The violence reflects unrest across Britain sparked by misinformation spreading on social media about a suspect in a knife attack in Southport on July 29 that left three children dead.
The Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) said on Saturday that 31 people had been arrested in connection with the disturbance.
“At its most basic, the Belfast attacks bear similarities to anti-immigrant protests in white working-class areas of England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe,” said Peter McLoughlin, a politics professor at Queen’s University Belfast.
“It's driven by racism and fear of the other, but in Northern Ireland it's also linked to sectarian political dynamics,” he told AFP.
Three decades of violent sectarian conflict, known as the “Turnaround,” ended in 1998, but bitterness and conflict remain between Protestants loyal to the United Kingdom and Catholic nationalists advocating Irish unity.
Outside Bashir's smoke-filled shop in Sandy Row, a city centre district with a loyal following, British Union Jacks flutter on lampposts and murals proclaim fervent loyalty to the United Kingdom.
“Within the loyalists, there is a sense that their community is retreating, that their community and their British identity are under attack,” McLaughlin explains.
Many loyalists feel they “must resist outsiders coming into these areas who are seen as taking away jobs and homes that were claimed by Protestants and encroaching on what was once a prominent community,” he added.
After Saturday's anti-immigrant protests, rioters took to the streets looking for foreign-owned businesses to attack.
“What happened last week was absolutely crazy,” Yilmaz Batu, a 64-year-old Turkish chef who has been living in Northern Ireland for two years, told AFP.
“We’ve never had any problems before,” he said, sitting at Sahara Shisha Cafe, one of several Middle Eastern and Turkish businesses near Sandy Row affected.
“Much of the violence is fuelled and incited by misinformation and disinformation on social media,” the Muslim Council of Northern Ireland said in a statement.
“False and dangerous narratives” about Muslims “being a minority in Northern Ireland” have led to attacks,” the report added.
Northern Ireland has a low immigration rate compared to the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The 2021 census showed that around 6 per cent of the population was born outside the UK or Ireland, with around 97 per cent identifying as white.
The chaos has “come as a shock to the community as a whole,” said Fiona Doran, chairwoman of United Against Racism, which co-organised Saturday’s rally in Belfast.
The rally, which drew thousands of people, gave people “an opportunity to take to the streets to show that Belfast is a welcoming city, a city that rejects racism and fascism,” she told AFP.
At an anti-immigrant rally in Belfast the previous day, about a hundred protesters carried British flags and signs that read: “Respect our country or leave!”
Some chanted the name of Tommy Robinson, a prominent anti-Muslim activist who has been accused of helping to incite unrest in the UK through his ongoing social media posts about the incident.
Nearby, a convoy of armored police vehicles was seen, as more than 1,000 protesters chanted, “Racists, get out!”
Bashir told AFP on Saturday he was unsure whether to reopen his supermarket.
“My question is, can we do that? If we can, it’s because so many people are coming out to support us,” he said after the rally.
