Massive Attack have shared a powerful statement calling out successive UK governments, the current Labour administration and the UK media for “years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism“ under-pinning the violent far-right riots currently sweeping across Britain.
The past week has seen riots and on-going racist violence in Southport, Sunderland, London, Belfast, Rotherham, Hull, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Bolton and a number of other towns and cities.
147 arrests have been made over the weekend as violence escalated for a sixth day across Britain in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport last week.
In the aftermath of the horrifying attack upon children attending a school holidays Taylor Swift-themed dance class, false rumours were spread online that the individual responsible was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in 2023 illegally by boat.
The outrage sparked by these untrue claims led Judge Andrew Menary KC to take the unusual decision to name the Cardiff-born teenager arrested and charged with the killings: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Banks in Lancashire, is now facing three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Despite these facts contradicting the false far-right narrative, there have been numerous anti-immigration demonstrations across the UK, many escalating into violent disorder, with attacks on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, the police and, today in Rotherham, Yorkshire, a sustained assault upon a Holiday Inn hotel where asylum seekers are believed to be housed.
