‘Feeling terrorized’: Muslims in famously left-leaning Liverpool shocked by UK riots

A view shows the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, amid rioting across the country in which mosques and Muslims have been targets, in Liverpool, Britain on August 6, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 08 August 2024
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‘Feeling terrorized’: Muslims in famously left-leaning Liverpool shocked by UK riots

  • Muslims report feeling shock after riots, other ethnic minorities say they are worried too
  • Muslim population in England and Wales stood at 3.9 million, or 6.5% of the total, as of 2021

LIVERPOOL, England: For Liverpool’s biggest mosque, it’s been a week of firsts.

Most entrances have been blocked, men in high-vis jackets have been taking turns to patrol and a handful of worshippers have been sleeping inside at night — all necessary precautions, say officials at the Al-Rahma Mosque, during the UK’s worst riots in years.

The increased vigilance comes as some Muslims and ethnic minorities in Liverpool say they feel unsafe amid widespread violent, racist protests targeting mosques, immigration centers and hotels that haven’t spared the famously left-leaning city in the north of England.

Both mosque officials and other Muslims in Liverpool described feeling shocked, after two mosques further north in England were targeted by violent mobs and hundreds of anti-immigration protesters and counterprotesters clashed in central

Liverpool. Shops were looted and some police were injured.

A second mosque in Liverpool, the Abdullah Quilliam, which describes itself as Britain’s first, has temporarily closed due to the violence, which was fueled by a false narrative spread online that the killer of three girls in nearby Southport last week was an Islamist migrant.

“I was born here, I was raised here. So seeing this, it just doesn’t feel like home,” said Abdulwase Sufian, a 20-year-old student who helps at the Al-Rahma, referring to himself as a “Scouser,” the colloquial term for someone from Liverpool.

“Seeing what’s happened, it’s gotten me scared, not just for myself, but for the future,” he said, the yellow dome and pink-and-yellow minarets of the Al-Rahma behind him as dozens of men finished afternoon prayers and left.

Sufian added that the separate female entrance for the mosque, which serves a wide range of Muslims from ethnic Yemeni to Pakistani, had been closed to discourage women from visiting in the evenings, out of safety concerns.

He himself hasn’t stepped outside his immediate neighborhood out of fears for his safety, Sufian said, a sentiment echoed by others in the community.

FEELING TERRIFIED

Saba Ahmed, a community worker and another Liverpudlian Muslim, said she had felt “terrified” in recent days, and her 15-year-old son was preferring to spend his summer holidays indoors on his PlayStation.

Still, many of Ahmed’s white English friends had been supportive, she said, with some neighbors offering to do the grocery shopping for her so she could remain safe at home.

“That’s our people in Liverpool, that’s our fellow neighbors here,” she said.

Others have been less fortunate.

Farmanullah Nasiri, a taxi driver, described being assaulted after picking up two passengers from Aigburth Road, Liverpool, in the early hours of Tuesday.

One of them, a woman, punched him on the face and broke his dashcam as she left his silver Ford Focus, after starting an argument over the fare and after abusing him once she learnt he was an ethnic Afghan, Nasiri said.

Nasiri, 28, says he did not file a police complaint.

A video shot at 0120 GMT on his iPhone showed a broken dashcam and blood above his right eye. Reuters was not able to verify his account of how it happened.

“This is kind of a racism ... Been here for more than 10 years in Liverpool. Everybody’s friendly. There’s no issue like this before. This is the first time,” Nasiri said.

Tell MAMA, a group which monitors anti-Muslim incidents, has received over 500 calls and online reports of anti-Muslim behavior from across the UK in the past week, a five-fold increase from the week before, its director Iman Atta told Reuters, describing Muslim communities as “terrorized.”

Anti-Muslim hate has been growing in the UK even before the start of the riots, and particularly after the start of the conflict in Gaza last year, the group says.

Over one in four in a survey of 550 British Muslims last month said they had faced an anti-Muslim hate incident in the last year, Tell MAMA said.

‘NOT JUST MUSLIMS’

Amid all the tension, Muslim community leaders are advising calm, at a time when many young men in the community might feel tempted to respond.

Footage from Sky News earlier this week showed a large group of mostly Asian men with Palestinian flags gathering in an area of Birmingham following rumors of a far-right protest at the site, which did not materialize. Police said a man was assaulted and a pub window was smashed, and have charged one man for possession of an offensive weapon.

The rival, counter protests have included both White and non-White people describing themselves as anti-racist, anti-fascist or pro-Palestinian. Sometimes extreme left-wing anarchists have also taken part.

Community leaders are discouraging such gatherings.

“We don’t want these counter protests or these large groups of young people turning up because that’s the spark that we don’t need ... so we need to be very careful,” said Sajjad Amin, trustee of the UKIM Khizra Mosque in Manchester, 30 miles (50 km) from Liverpool.

Some Muslim leaders recounted tensions being defused.

Adam Kelwick, an imam at the temporarily-closed Abdullah Quilliam mosque, said it had been “prepared for the worst” when anti-immigration demonstrators gathered outside last week, but protesters calmed down after offers of food and dialogue.

“All it took was a few burgers and some chips and some genuine intention from our side,” he said, speaking from near the chained up gates of the Victorian-era mosque.

The Muslim population in England and Wales stood at 3.9 million people, or 6.5 percent of the total, as of 2021.

The heightened tension has unnerved both that community and others. On Tuesday evening rumors of a far-right gathering prompted shops on Lawrence Road to down their shutters early.

Local resident Santhosh Thomas, an ethnic Indian, helped chain up two large metal road signs to the fence of a nearby church, to discourage their use as weapons.

He said his brown skin made him a target, regardless of his religion. “It’s not just Muslims ... everyone is scared,” Thomas said, as a police van arrived on Lawrence Road.


Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

Updated 9 sec ago
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Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

  • Doctors conduct 500 cataract removal procedures in Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka
  • Campaign will then move to the eastern city of Kattankudy, where another 500 patients will be treated

COLOMBO: Hundreds of Sri Lankan patients are set to receive eye surgery and specialist care this week under a blindness prevention program launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

The Saudi Noor Volunteer Program, running between Nov. 4 and 9, is organized by KSrelief in the town of Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital Colombo. On Nov. 10-17, the campaign will move to the city of Kattakundy, further east.

Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in Sri Lanka. Patients often have to wait for years to have them removed under government programs. At private clinics, the cheapest lens replacement procedure is too expensive for many patients in poorer parts of the country.

“There is big demand since poor people can’t afford surgery privately, which costs 100,000 rupees ($340) per person. There are many cataract patients in Sri Lanka but the facilities are few. There are long waiting lists for surgery,” M.S.M. Thassim, chairman of the Association of Muslim Youths — KSrelief’s local partner — told Arab News.

Patients wait for KSrelief-funded eye surgery in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka, on Nov. 5, 2024. (Association of Muslim Youths)

“We are doing it in two places; the first part is Walasmulla, which is finishing on Nov. 9, and we have already completed 400 surgeries and 100 more to go. Then at Kattankudy, which begins on Nov. 10, where another 500 will be performed.”

Some of the patients were already blind before the intervention of the KSrelief medical team, whose members have been praised for being “people friendly” and “committed” to their mission.

“The patients are full of gratitude to the Saudi government and the King Salman center for the noble intervention that restored their eyesight,” Thassim said.

The two-week eye care campaign in Walasmulla and Kattakundy is part of the Saudi government’s long-standing efforts to combat blindness in developing countries.

In Sri Lanka alone, 31,000 patients have undergone Saudi-sponsored surgery since 2001.


World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres

Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
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World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres

  • Global efforts to adapt to climate change have not kept pace as global warming accelerates the frequency and intensity of disasters
  • Antonio Guterres: ‘Climate calamity is the new reality. And we’re not keeping up’

PARIS: The world is nowhere near ready for the “calamity” being caused by climate change and must urgently prepare for even worse in the future, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.
Global efforts to adapt to climate change – from building defensive sea walls to planting drought-resistant crops – have not kept pace as global warming accelerates the frequency and intensity of disasters.
Floods, fires and other climate shocks have affected nearly every continent in a year the EU climate monitor says is almost certain to be the hottest ever recorded.
The amount of money going to poorer countries for adaptation measures was barely one-tenth of what they needed to disaster-proof their vulnerable economies, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a new assessment looking at 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
“Climate calamity is the new reality. And we’re not keeping up,” said Guterres at the launch of UNEP’s annual Adaptation Gap Report.
Rich nations are under pressure at this month’s UN COP29 summit to substantially increase the $100 billion they pledged for climate action in developing countries, including for adaptation.
But some donor governments are under fiscal and political pressure, and major new commitments of public money are not expected at the conference in Azerbaijan.
A UN biodiversity meeting this month failed to reach a funding agreement and the election of Donald Trump – who opposes global climate cooperation – hangs over COP29.
Most of the public money committed to climate change goes to reducing planet-warming emissions, not adapting to its long-term consequences.
Some $28 billion in public finance was paid to developing countries for climate adaptation in 2022.
This was an increase on the year prior, but still a drop in the ocean: UNEP estimates between $215 billion and $387 billion is needed annually for adaptation in developing countries.
Rich countries had pledged to double the amount by 2025 to roughly $40 billion a year but even this would leave an “extremely large” adaptation funding gap, UNEP said.
Climate disasters hit poorest communities hardest but the cost of inaction was no longer borne by them alone, said Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation.
“From rising seas and extreme heat waves to relentless droughts and floods, the impacts of climate change now reach every corner of the globe. No nation, no community is immune,” he said in a statement.
Spanish authorities were accused of being inadequately prepared when a major storm brought flooding that killed over 200 people last month.
Climate scientists say that global warming is fueling more frequent and severe extreme weather.
“We can’t postpone protection. We must adapt – now,” Guterres said.


Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump

Updated 07 November 2024
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Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump

  • Parolin’s comments were the first diplomatic reaction from the Holy See to Trump’s win for the White House against Democrat Kamala Harris

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican’s secretary of state congratulated US president-elect Donald Trump Thursday, while expressing doubt that the Republican had a “magic wand” to end conflicts quickly as promised during the campaign.
“We wish him a lot of wisdom because that is the main virtue of leaders according to the Bible,” Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome.
Asked about Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” Parolin replied: “Let’s hope, let’s hope. I believe that not even he has a magic wand.”
“To end wars, a lot of humility is needed, a lot of willingness is needed, it really is necessary to seek the general interests of humanity rather than concentrate on particular interests,” he said.
To overcome divisions in American society, Parolin said he hoped Trump would be “the president of the whole country.”
He also hoped he would be “a factor that reduces tension... in the current conflicts that are bloodying the world.”
Parolin’s comments were the first diplomatic reaction from the Holy See to Trump’s win for the White House against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Pope Francis has not reacted.
In September, the Argentine pope criticized both candidates, accusing them of being “against life” in different ways: for Harris’ support of abortion, and for Trump’s anti-migrant policies.
During his first term in the White House, in May 2017, Trump was received by the Pope at the Vatican for a half-hour meeting.


NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump

Updated 07 November 2024
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NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump

  • ‘What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China, and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine’

BUDAPEST: NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday he aimed to work jointly with returning US leader Donald Trump in confronting the “dangerous new developments” linked to North Korea’s entry into the Russian war on Ukraine.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China, and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte told reporters at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“This is more and more a threat, not only to the European part of NATO, but also to the United States — because Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea,” he warned.
“I look forward to sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.
North Korea has become one of the strongest backers of Russia’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine, and the West has long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow.
Based on intelligence reports, Western powers now believe Pyongyang has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting deeper involvement in the conflict.
Iran meanwhile stands accused of supplying Russia with missiles and drones, while China is suspected of helping Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions on technologies for use in the war against Ukraine.


Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

Updated 07 November 2024
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Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

  • Russia has systematically targeted the Ukrainian capital with drone and missile barrages
  • Kyiv was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October

KYIV: Kyiv was targeted by another “massive” Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
Officials meanwhile in the south and east of the country said Russian attacks had killed two Ukrainian civilians in Kherson and Sumy.
Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on Febr. 24, 2022.
The capital was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October, officials said.
“The attack took place in waves, from different directions, with drones entering the city at different altitudes — both very low and high,” the city administration said.
It added that more than 36 drones had been downed over the capital and the surrounding area and that falling debris had fallen on six districts of Kyiv and wounded two people.
AFP journalists heard air raid sirens ring out over the capital beginning shortly after midnight Kyiv time and the alert lasted some eight hours.
The reporters also heard drones buzzing over the city and air defense systems working to shoot down the drones.
The attack caused a fire in a 30-story residential building in the city center, and residents had to be evacuated, the mayor’s office said.
The head of the Kherson region meanwhile said the body of a deceased man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the attack in a Russian attack overnight.
In the eastern Sumy region, the body of another killed person was recovered following a Russian airstrike hours earlier, the interior ministry said.