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Indonesians in UK worry about safety amid escalating anti-immigrant riots
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Protestors throw a garbage bin on fire outside a hotel in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams (Reuters/Hollie Adams )
T
he rapidly spreading anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiments across the United Kingdom in recent days have caused anxiety among the Indonesian community, with some deciding to seek safety by staying at home and canceling plans in or out of town.
Tantri Lukitaningrum, a master’s student at Queen Mary University of London, told The Jakarta Post that she canceled her workout schedule on Tuesday morning, following reports that violent protests, which had started in northern England over the weekend, would spread to London, located in the southern part of Great Britain, sometime soon.
Disorder has hit more than a dozen towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland since a knife attack on July 29 targeting children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Southport, northwest England, left three girls dead and five more children critically injured, AFP reported.
Mobs threw bricks and flares, attacked police, burned and looted shops, smashed the windows of cars and homes and targeted at least two hotels housing asylum-seekers in a number of cities at the weekend. Roughly 400 individuals have been arrested during the riots.
False rumors initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media reported his parents are from Rwanda, which has very few Muslims.
However, that has not stopped mosques from being targeted, with the government offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
