‘People are in fear’: Muslim family set to leave Belfast following riots

People from Muslim and ethnic minority backgrounds are still living in fear more than six months on from racist rioting in Belfast. As latest police figures show record numbers of race hate crimes last year, Luke Butterly speaks with some of those affected.

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A MUSLIM woman and her children plan to leave Northern Ireland because they no longer feel safe.

Farah* moved from London to south Belfast with her family six years ago.

She has described how, for her and her family, Belfast has changed from being a place where they were made welcome to one where they no longer feel safe.

Farah said that since the racist riots in August last year, when a mosque was targeted and several businesses were attacked, Muslim women are anxious when leaving the house.

Some have been attacked in shops or on the street, she said.

“People are in fear. People are worried about wearing a hijab”, referring to the head covering worn by Muslim women.

“I used to go with my friends at least once or twice a week, we would go and have coffee together.

“But ever since the riots, I'm scared. I don't feel like I belong anymore.”

During the rioting in south Belfast in early August, Farah said local people reached out to make sure she was safe.

“I had a friend who was checking on us every day. I had many people who texted me over that time and said, ‘Are you okay? Do you need any shopping? Do you want to meet me for coffee? Or do you want us to come to your house?”

Farah said the riots have negatively impacted her three school age children.

Her 14 year old son has been too anxious to return to his south Belfast school, or even his local park to play football.

“I have to keep telling my children, ‘Be vigilant, be aware of your surroundings.’ Things I have never told them before.

“To see my youngest son going through that amount of anxiety, it was just madness. Even now, he can't go to the park by himself.

“I ask him ‘Why do you feel so unsafe? He said he worries ‘If anybody knows I'm a Muslim, people can see I'm black.’”

Her son has been enrolled in online classes since September, and they plan to move back to London this summer.

His 17 year old brother, currently doing his A Levels, has become less confident and feels like he doesn’t belong in Northern Ireland, Farah said.

“He was a simple, happy black boy. He never had any fears, he was very confident, proud to be British. And now, he knows he's different. He is more aware of things.

“He has very many Catholic and Protestant friends. Now he's closer with his black friends. This seems like it's just narrowed that down.”

Farah’s 18 year old daughter has abandoned plans to study at university in Belfast, and stopped wearing her hijab in public.

“She had just finished her A Levels, and she always loved Northern Ireland so much. But all of a sudden she just said, No, I don't see myself studying here anymore. So she went back to England," Farah said.

“When she's in Belfast she takes her hijab off because she's very small, and she says, I'm only small, anybody can just hurt me.”

Terrifying days

Dr Naomi Green of the Belfast Islamic Centre said that the rioting in Belfast last August is still having a big impact on Muslim communities in Belfast and across Northern Ireland.

“The news has moved on, but the community hasn't,” she said.

“People are still scared, especially people who live in those areas (impacted by the riots).

“They were terrifying days. People were afraid to drive through town, would they be pulled out of their car? People were afraid to turn their lights on, to answer their door."

Hate crime, and lack of prosecution, has become normalised, Dr Green said.

“It is so normalised, people expect (to be a victim of hate crime), but they don’t expect anyone to be caught.

“There is no sense that the justice system is going to do anything.”

The Detail previously reported that only around 6% of race hate crimes in Northern Ireland are ever prosecuted.

However, Dr Green said there is a sense that the policing response has improved since the riots, including when police removed threatening posters in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim in late September.

The posters, which police said constituted a hate crime, threatened anyone "facilitating the settlement of Muslims or illegals" in the area.

Social media

The murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, at a dance party in Southport on July 29, were seized upon by far-right extremists.

False claims that the murderer was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK illegally spread quickly online, as did violent unrest in parts of England and Northern Ireland.

One widely-circulated social media post called on Christians to march on the Belfast Islamic Center and “demand a withdrawal from our communities and our Christian country".

The march to the Islamic Centre was blocked by police, but rioters attacked several businesses in south Belfast.

Seven people have been convicted for offences relating to the disorder, according to figures provided by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

Offences included disorderly behavior, criminal damage, assaulting police, and taking part in an unnotified public procession.

Two individuals were jailed for three months each, four received suspended sentences ranging from three to four months, and one individual is yet to be sentenced.

To date the PPS have received 22 files from the police.

In addition to the seven convictions, five cases are still proceeding through the courts, and three resulted in a decision not to prosecute.

A decision on whether to prosecute has still to be decided in the remaining seven files.

Groups working with race hate crime victims said the unrest this summer was shocking but not surprising.

Michael Avila, from the Hate Crime Advocacy Service, said the service saw a significant increase in race hate crime in the months leading up to the August riots.

“Early 2024 had already seen - by far - the most referrals to the service,” he said.

“So we were already very concerned.”

Mr Avila added that hate crime increases were recorded in areas throughout Northern Ireland, not only Belfast.

There were 234 reported race hate crimes in August 2024, according to police statistics.

This was the highest on record and more than 3.5 times the monthly average for such crimes over the previous five years.

But May, June, and July 2024 were all also among the highest monthly recorded race hate crimes on record.

The Detail asked the Executive Office, the lead Stormont department for racial equality, what actions the department has taken since the August riots, but they did not respond.

The Northern Ireland Executive’s new 98-page Programme for Government makes a single reference to “the introduction of a strategic approach to racial equality”, but provides no detail.

A recent review of the Executive's 10-year Racial Equality Strategy, which expires this year, found that it had been undermined by the lack of an action plan and budget.

The PSNI appealed for anyone with information about recent racist attacks to contact them on 101 or to contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

“As a Police Service, we do not underestimate the impact hate crimes have on victims, their families and wider communities. It is totally unacceptable that anyone is targeted simply because of who they are or where they come from,” a spokesman said.

“The Police Service of Northern Ireland will do everything it can to prevent hate crime and detect those responsible. Any report of hate crime attracts an enhanced level of supervision, investigation and support to the victim.

“We know that hate crime is underreported and we encourage anyone who has been a victim to report this to police. The Police Service also work closely with the Hate Crime Advocacy Service which can provide a victim with additional support and guidance on the criminal justice process.”