Riots across Britain: how did we get here?

The scenes across Britain over the last seven days have been little short of apocalyptic. Nationwide racist anti-immigrant rioters have attacked the police, set fire to migrant hotels, attacked black people, Asians and Muslims and threatened property and life. And that is just what we know so far, as riots continue to erupt across the country. There is almost too much violence to keep up. How on earth did we get here? 

Uncomfortable fact: humanity is inherently tribal. Over tens of thousands of years the tribes that survived were those that stuck together and eliminated the “other”, and it is their genes that passed on and make up who we are today. “Othering” is natural and adopting narratives that oversimplify and target a group that differs is like gorging on chocolate cake when you know you are on a diet. So what to do? Society has to make “othering” a social taboo, something societally shameful; when an “othering” looses the barrier of societal shame, indeed when these narratives enter elements of the political mainstream, it becomes incredibly dangerous. 

Meanwhile, a western liberal society has to also create a situation in which all can live in equality and tolerance of one another. This is a difficult task if pockets want the fruits of existing in the society but don’t deliver on equality and tolerance. We have arrived at mass violence across the country because far-Right narratives have become politically mainstreamed and intolerant ideologies have manifested themselves unopposed. We find ourselves at an inflection point, so pulling back from here is going to require a true revival of the central ground.

Years of anti-immigrant narratives, a fixation on stopping the boats and a targeting of the Muslim community at large, have seen the rise of far-Right ideologues, such as Tommy Robinson. Rather than tackle the complex issue of ideological extremism and religious fundamentalism emanating, in the main, from the Muslim Brotherhood and from Iran, it has been simpler to classify all Muslims as inherently incompatible with Western values. Pinning the issue on Muslims in general gives an easy target, easy sound bites that can form a popular war cry. Politicians such as Nigel Farage or Suella Braverman have lent respectability to anti-immigrant narratives.

This far-Right tribal thinking is now manifesting itself in anti-migrant violence on the streets — something almost unprecedented in the UK. Meanwhile a contradictory, confused and often counter-productive response to Islamist extremism has delivered ammo to the extremists, who are now tapping into racist urges. The far-Right, the far-Left, a bumbling establishment and perceived police inaction has paved the way for an opportunistic outpouring of racism and violence.

The warning signs have been here for decades, with far-Right narratives spreading across the Western world, but there were worrying signs of a violent anti-Muslim campaign in the making just weeks before the murder of three small children at a dance class in Southport. Tommy Robinson was creating an all roads point to Muslims narrative. A social services issue in Hartlepool centred around the Roma community – but “Tommy” pinned it on Muslims. Then, when it came to three beautiful little girls murdered and many others brutally stabbed, the perfectly primed far-Right social media machine jumped to action. The perpetrator, regardless of the truth, had to be Muslim or at the very least a migrant. The message: British patriots are not afforded safeguarding by the state and police; the people need to take their defence into their own hands.

What then happened to facts? 

In an age of declining trust in establishment and mainstream media, people have turned to social media for their source of news, often trusting a person they believe to be “honest” rather than placing their trust in regulated journalism. In 2022 YouGov polling found that 61% of respondents did not believe that the UK Government reflected values of honesty and integrity. This year a survey saw the British public’s trust in the media drop to 31%.  And when a globalised and complex world is projected through a plethora of platforms, simple binary solutions become ever more attractive. 

As I write, far-Right thought leaders are on twitter sharing videos of pro-Palestine protests alongside racist anti-immigrant riots, contrasting the robust response of the police to the riots with their low-key handling of the protests. These beliefs are a product of engaging in selective truths to fit a binary extreme narrative. The crackdown on the riots is due to the fact that targeting the police threatens the whole of society and the very foundation of law and order. Criminality and terrorism support within the pro-Palestine movement is a huge issue that has been poorly managed. However, the protests themselves were not a targeted attack on society. They therefore came under the laws that regulate protests, rather than the more punitive laws now being invoked to prevent mass violence. Yet the far-Right is peddling the lie that the police and the authorities hate patriots. 

And then there is the factor of social media popularity and praise. Sticking up for truth, nuance, or the centre ground gets you nowhere on this front. The positions of researchers, academics and strategists on issues of radicalisation and extremism make you no friends. They are complex and do not satisfy an urge for snappy simple answers. They discuss national security threats too readily for the far-Left, yet for the far-Right they lack tribal sentiment. Experts classify the far-Right, too, as an extremist issue. 

As a coordinator and researcher on terrorism, I have seen my work weaponised for reductionist Right-wing narratives. I have refused time again to comment on issues like “stop the boats”, and when dragged into discussing it, I have described an unhealthy obsession that distracts from the real issue at hand: domestic radicalisation and a battle of ideas, not a battle against a whole people. Breaking the reductionist narratives gets an interview wrapped up quickly, a smirk from the host and deluge of twitter hate. 

Most recently I debated Tommy Robinson on an Indian news channel, as he tried to twist the Hartlepool riots towards a false narrative of Muslim aggressors. My twitter following has not yet recovered from accusations of being a representative of the white liberal elite. At the same time, I have watched aghast as the establishment time again gets it wrong on Islamism, working with Islamists, letting hate preachers into the country and at times, avoiding discussion on Islamism all together. By virtue of this work I am often accused of being an Islamophobe and an Islamist ally, often on the same day.   

Thus far the Government has not got it right. Fears of fanning the far-Right by tackling Islamism head on have resulted in people feeling not enough is being done to tackle the issue, rendering them vulnerable to far-Right radicalisation. Islamism has been emboldened and too many Muslim Brotherhood inspired outfits operate unchallenged in the UK, whilst dangerous hate preachers visit for preaching tours year on year, preaching for the death of minority groups and blasphemers. The answer to the salience of the reductionist anti-Muslim narratives lies in both tackling racist beliefs and taking a robust and clear stance on Islamist extremism. The response rightly being meted out towards the anti-migrant racists now should be applied equally to Islamist extremists.

What we have seen over the last seven days and counting has been in the making for decades. The head in sand approach to Islamism has left us with an Islamist problem and fertile ground for the far-Right. This results in the spread of far-Right narratives and a lack of support and engagement with a robust central ground. Declining trust in the establishment and in the mainstream media has turned many to unregulated “truth tellers” with aggressive followers. Those on the frontline of tackling extremism are left in a no-man’s-land, while the incentive to keep up the fight for nuance, moderation and tolerance is sorely lacking. 

Charlotte Littlewood is a former counter-terrorism coordinator and is now a freelance researcher for various global think tanks with a focus on faith and extremism.  

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