This was effectively an attempted pogrom. They went looking for ethnic minorities and they tried to burn them alive. Masked men marched down the streets of Belfast with weapons, kicking down front doors, looking for immigrants, setting cars on fire if they believed they were owned by foreigners. Children fled from their home as the mob set it alight.
The riots last night were inspired by social media posts about a Sudanese man who had stabbed a white man, but this is not an organic process. It is the ruthless cynical exploitation of emotive events to trigger disorder, just like last week’s travesty over the murder of Henry Nowak.
Many front pages this morning dwell at length on the details of the attack and of the suspect’s immigration status. This focus on an admittedly brutal incident ends up supporting the narrative of the far-right. It suggests that we are seeing a spate of attacks by asylum seekers, or ethnic minorities in general, against white people.
But, where was the coverage last Thursday when Chas Corrigan, a white man, was sentenced for the murder of Mohammed Algasim, a student from Saudi Arabia? This crime was just as horrific as what happened in Northern Ireland. Algasim was 20, studying English in the UK. He had his life in front of him. His parents loved him. Why was his stabbing not considered as newsworthy? Why did that not trigger posts on social media and protests in the street? Because the victim was brown and the attacker was white. That’s why. It does not fit the far-right narrative. So no-one ever hears about it.
