Riots in Britain, Starmer’s Hard Punch

“Whatever the motivation, this is not a protest, this is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities. The full force of the law will apply to all persons identified as participants.” These are the words of Keir Starmer, spoken after a meeting between the UK Prime Minister and the police. For a week now, riots have been breaking out in various cities across Britain, leading to the arrest of 378 people.

It all started on July 30 after a social media post that the perpetrator of the Southport massacre (three girls killed with stab wounds and various injuries during a dance class) was a radical Islamist who had just arrived in the UK illegally. Police immediately said the 17-year-old mass murder suspect was born in Britain, where his parents had moved from Rwanda.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said rioters had been “encouraged to incite racial hatred,” while the police themselves blamed fake news circulating on the internet as the fuel that triggered the protests, which saw stores looted, mosques and Asian-owned businesses attacked, cars set on fire, and people from ethnic minorities assaulted. Also stirring up hate are “famous” people such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), former head of the anti-Islamic Defense League of England, who has 875,000 followers on X and has been accused of spreading misinformation. Elon Musk himself has spoken out on the topic, saying: “Civil war is inevitable,” referring to the problem of out-of-control immigration. Starmer, through a spokesperson, explained that Musk’s comment was “unfounded.”

Starmer also guaranteed protection for Muslim communities by promising to deploy specialized police forces, but without resorting to the use of the military. “Swift sentences” will be handed down through the courts to those responsible for the worst violence Britain has seen in a decade.