A week of racism-fuelled disorder in Northern Ireland, sparked by disturbances in English towns and cities, is proving harder to end, with fears the UK region's sectarian divisions are feeding into the violence. "They burned every single thing, there is nothing left inside, just ashes," said Bashir, whose supermarket in Belfast was torched during attacks against foreign-owned shops and businesses. A mosque in a town near Belfast was also targeted late Friday.
"We are scared at what may happen next, there is lots of hostility against the Muslim community," said the 28-year-old from Dubai, who did not want to give his full name citing safety reasons. Northern Ireland has seen nightly unrest, mainly in pro-UK loyalist neighbourhoods, that began after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on August 3. The violence has mirrored disorder across England, spurred by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack in Southport on July 29 which killed three children.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Saturday that 31 people have been arrested during the disturbances. "On a fundamental level the Belfast attacks are similar in its dynamic to anti-immigration protests in white working class areas in England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe," said Peter McLoughlin, a politics lecturer at Queens University Belfast. "It is driven by racism and fear of the other, but in Northern Ireland it also interfaces with sectarian.