Northern Ireland: riots after knife attack
A second night of rioting has rocked Northern Ireland after a video of a knife attack which left a man seriously injured on Monday was circulated online. The incident has triggered mass anti-immigration protests, with vehicles and buildings being set on fire. According to the police, the suspected perpetrator is a 30-year-old man from Sudan.
Digital sabotage of democracy
The Guardian calls for decisive action against violent extremist groups:
“The prime minister issues insipid warnings to social media companies to behave responsibly. He condemns racist violence and urges calm on the streets. But he does not properly address the mechanism – the ideological capture of a digital information space – that is undermining social cohesion and sabotaging democracy at a systemic level. A contagious violent strain of far-right politics has been normalised online and is now spreading on to the streets. It needs to be beaten on both fronts.”
Social media used to incite violence
Eldiario.es criticises the role of social media platform X:
“This week Elon Musk, the owner of X, once again used his platform to incite violence. ... Musk's calls to action and the manipulative use of his network are so explicit that the harm they are causing is undeniable. ... Regulating transnational corporations is always complex, yet in this context it's hard to understand why governments, institutions and the media continue to participate in this network and help to fund it through their presence. ... Social media such as X undoubtedly have a negative impact on our society. Accepting this and remaining on the platform is a decision that can be avoided.”
Risk of further radicalisation
Hatred of immigrants has become mainstream, Trud cautions:
“It's got to the point where calls for deportation are regarded as a moderate stance. What people are actually calling for now is a combination of the death penalty, deportation and punishment for politicians and civil servants. ... And we're no longer talking about a handful of people who protest vociferously on social media and are derided as scum. We're talking about young men who are educated and organised. ... Unless drastic and decisive action is taken now, these young men will become even more radicalised.”
Farage pouring fuel on the fire
Xenophobia is being whipped up, La Stampa laments:
“This is a scenario that is playing out with increasing frequency: a violent incident involving migrants becomes a political flashpoint. This was already the case, after a young Englishman was stabbed to death in Southampton by a man of Indian origin. ... The leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, accused the police of double standards and of paradoxically discriminating against white Britons to avoid suspicions of racism. An unfounded accusation, given that even in tolerant England members of ethnic minorities are four times more likely than white people to be stopped by the police and more than twice as likely to be arrested.”
Politicians' language badly out of date
The Daily Telegraph explains why the protests in Northern Ireland are gaining momentum:
“First, the place is still hard-wired for sectarian politics. Second, it is now experiencing migration and demographic change that its institutions were never designed to handle. Finally, there is almost no honest public language for discussing the overlap between the two. ... Northern Ireland's political language is badly out of date for the world it now inhabits. Its leaders are practised at condemning sectarian hatred but visibly uncomfortable talking about migration, integration and crime.”
More plain talk and less innuendo
Its time to talk turkey, argues El Mundo:
“A kind of lethargy paralyses commentators whenever an immigrant ploughs into a crowd in a city centre. Or when a group of immigrants rapes a young woman. ... The atmosphere is thick with innuendo. The dead, the wounded, the raped are being swept under the carpet because there is no diagnosis, no monitoring body, no courage. A presumed non-existent problem is supposed to sort itself out. ... The need to remain silent when bloody spectacles unfold in the heart of cities becomes almost pathological, especially when the perpetrator's origin has played a role on previous occasions.”