Photo: CNS/Jason Cairnduff, Reuters. A Catholic priest has said that “violence is never the answer” after further scenes of unrest and anti-immigration protests took place across the UK.
The violent scenes in several towns and cities, including Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Bolton, Belfast, Liverpool and Southport, were sparked by the killing of three young girls in Southport at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.
Cars and businesses were set alight in Belfast, whilst a Holiday Inn hotel which seeks asylum seekers in Rotherham was attacked. In Southport itself, garden walls were pulled down, bricks were thrown at police officers and windows at a local Mosque were smashed. Over 140 people have been arrested across the country.
Liverpool priest Fr Chris Thomas, who was a priest in Southport in the 1990s, spoke out against the violence.
“Violence is never the answer even in dreadful circumstances,” Fr Chris told The Irish Catholic. “Violence simply breeds violence and damages already broken people. It frightens good people”.
False information was spread across social media that the man who killed the three children was an Islamic asylum seeker. However, Police shared the news that Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda, was charged in court with murder and attempted murder. Research showed that Rudakubana is not linked with Islam.
In several cities, following violent scenes, communities have come together to clean up and rebuild damaged property. In Southport, local residents gathered to fix the broken windows at the Al-Rahma Mosque.
Fr Chris Thomas said: “I have been so impressed by the people of Southport, who have broken the cycle of violence by reaching out healing one another. It can be our only response to violence.”
Archbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon, and Bishop Tom Neylon, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool, signed a joint statement expressing their ‘shock, sadness and horror’ with other local Christian leaders in Churches Together in Merseyside. “We commit ourselves afresh to standing against brutality and violence in every form and doing all we can to build safe, caring and strong communities,” they said. Islamic and Jewish faith leaders also called for unity and peace in Liverpool.
Nationally, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the ‘thuggery’ and promised that rioters would ‘regret’ being involved. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said there would be a ‘reckoning’ for rioters as well as for those ‘who whipped them up on social media.’