It was about 6pm on Wednesday when faith leaders at the Nasir mosque in Hartlepool were told by police to close its doors due to a protest by far-right activists in the town.
“The police came and said we need to block the gate because there is trouble on the way,” recalled Muhammad Ali Ahmad, general secretary of the mosque.
The demonstration, which was attended by about 150 people, quickly descended into violence, with a police car set alight and officers attacked. Several expressed support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and shouted: “Save our children.”
Hartlepool was just one of several places, including Manchester and London, to face unrest after false claims circulated online that the perpetrator of the knife attack in Southport on Monday, which killed three young girls, was a Muslim who had arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel on a small boat.
The disorder has prompted growing safety fears among Muslim communities and asylum seekers as at least 19 further far-right demonstrations are planned for the coming days. In response, the Muslim Council of Britain organised a briefing on security for faith leaders and urged mosques to remain vigilant.
Ahmad described the disorder in Hartlepool as the “most concerning and worrying” demonstration to ever take place in the area. “Obviously [the Muslim community] will be concerned for their own safety, for the safety of their families and of their mosque,” he said. “You do look over your shoulder at times like these, which isn’t reassuring and [is] troubling … I said to my mother, who’s 65: ‘Don’t go outside for a few days – let things calm down.’”
He added: “We try to serve the community as much as possible – and the people of Hartlepool – and the last thing we want is to feel unsafe in the same place which we love and we care for.”
Ahmad and his colleagues have provided more than 25,000 free meals to people in need since the pandemic.
Shahid Babu Patel, an accountant at the Southport mosque that was attacked by far-right demonstrators on Tuesday evening, said the event was “sickening”.
He said: “It is the only mosque in Southport. The next nearest mosque is more than 25 miles away … My worry is for my own father, who is 91. Other senior Muslims are also in their 70s and 80s. We have asked them all to stay away for now. I hope that they will be able to return without fear of being insulted or attacked by the minority of people.”
More than 50 police officers were injured and five men arrested after the far-right riots in Southport, when bricks, stones and bottles were thrown and cars set alight after a vigil for the victims. Members of the community rallied together on Wednesday morning to clean the streets and rebuild the wall outside the mosque after the disorder.
An asylum seeker living in the Southport area said he was horrified by the knife attack and wanted to find a way to pass on his condolences to the bereaved families. “We want to tell the families how sorry we are about what happened but we don’t have a way to do this,” he said.
Someone who had been onboard the Bibby Stockholm barge, which was previously targeted by far-right groups, said they feared for their safety after demonstrations at asylum accommodation in Aldershot and Chichester.
“We feel so sad about what happened to the children in Southport. In our culture small children are adored and highly valued. If I had been in the room where the attacks happened I would rather the attacker had taken my life than the lives of those children,” they said.
“Asylum seekers are good people and we are sad to see this ideology of hate and blame following the Southport attacks. We know there are some people who have Islamophobic and anti-asylum seeker views. It has made us very scared.”
Shaukat Warraich, the director of Mosquesecurity.com, which provides risk and security advice to Muslim faith leaders across the UK, said they had received inquiries from more than 100 mosques seeking help.
An imam from Gloucester, Abdullah, said he had received messages from mosque leaders describing security risks.
“We have been sent messages from mosque leaders and committee members from around the country saying, guys, you need to have a neighbourhood watch team out in the evenings for your mosques, don’t walk alone to the mosque, consider additional security to mosques,” Abdullah said. “This feels like they’re out to get us, essentially, and it feels like it is against specifically the Muslim community.”
The faith leader said Robinson and some politicians were responsible for the disorder. “They have perpetuated this,” he said. “They light a match and they walk off.”
Although Abdullah described the demonstrations as “very targeted”, he urged members of the Muslim community to attend their daily lives while taking precautions.
“It’s about mentality. Don’t go into this victim mentality: ‘I’m going to stay at home, I’m not going to come out.’ No, that’s not what we’re taught, right? We’re brave people.”
