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Laurie Wastell
Laurie Wastell is an associate editor of the Daily Sceptic and the host of the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. He is also a regular contributor to the Spectator.
Last week I noted two examples of the ugly and largely ignored phenomenon during the Southport unrest of Muslim mobs, supposedly formed in self-defence against the ‘far-right’, going round attacking innocent white victims – and then meeting with a slap on the wrist from officialdom, if they are prosecuted at all. After posting about these on X, my attention was drawn towards more of these alarming incidents, which have each received precious little attention.
In a fascinating revelation about the Bordesley Green disorder, where an ‘anti-EDL’ gathering supposedly to defend a local mosque ended up in scenes of random mob violence, it turns out that one of the Muslim men involved was actually charged with a hate crime. Muhammed Ali was jailed last year for 30 months for violent disorder and racially aggravated criminal damage. The 19-year-old had been part of a group which attacked a blue Skoda in the Bordesley Green area, smashing its windows.
While the sentence is arguably somewhat soft, this conviction is significant. As I noted last week, the CPS flatly denied that an assault by another Muslim man on a lone white bloke involved in the ‘anti-EDL’ gathering had even the suggestion of being a racial attack. “The EDL is not recognised as a racial or religious group,” it said. “There were no factors in the behaviour that made this a specific assault due to religious or racial motivations.” And yet another member of the same mob, also committing lawless violence, was found to have had racial motivations. “No factors” again seems like protesting too much.
Just as interesting is the way it has been covered in the press. Here is West Midlands Police’s statement, which forms the main body of the few pieces that exist about Ali’s conviction last year, mostly on regional papers.
Muhammed Ali has been jailed for violent disorder in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, in August last year.
Ali, 20, was involved in disorder which saw a Skoda vehicle smashed on August 5th.
Following the disorder, we issued an appeal to identify Ali across our website and social media.
As a result of our appeals, Ali was arrested.
The 20-year-old from Yardley Green Road has been jailed for two years and six months.
Readers will note that this statement makes no mention at all of the racially aggravated criminal damage conviction, which thus goes unreported in the relevant pieces. It is only via a BBC piece that one does learn of this conviction – and even here the lede is firmly buried, and we are given no details at all about the reason for the conviction or insights into who the victim was (though one can make a fair guess). Footage on social media which appears to show the attack on the car doesn’t make matters a whole lot clearer.
So in this case the justice system was able to identify a racist attack by a Muslim mob. Good. Nevertheless, the “strong symbolic message of denunciation” that hate crimes were originally supposed to send did not go out in this case, owing to the lack of forthrightness in subsequent reporting.
It was a similar story with an incident during unrest in Darlington on August 5th 2024. Arian Ahmed, 19, and 21 year-old Mujmain Uddin, armed with a spanner and a crowbar, chased a man through the streets and assaulted him in what Teesside Crown Court described as a “racially motivated” attack targeting a “white British male”. Judge Francis Laird KC ruled that the severity of the disorder and the racial element justified a custodial sentence, saying, “You both chose to take part in what became serious public disorder, you both chose to assault an entirely innocent man who had not been involved in the disorder in any way.” So far, so just? Incredibly, though, despite both being charged with violent disorder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (with racial aggravation) and possession of an offensive weapon, the pair’s sentences were pitiful: 10 months’ detention in a young offenders’ institute for Ahmed and 12 months in prison for Uddin. Across the country, many white protesters were jailed for significantly longer on a single charge of violent disorder.
Still, were Messrs Ahmed and Uddin chastened by this spell inside, and were their friends and family at least ashamed of them? The kicker of this sorry tale, as the Northern Echo later revealed, was that money donated to a fundraiser to help the community recover from the disorder in fact went directly to the families of the two young criminals. The paper reported:
A GoFundMe page for the Darlington Community Emergency Fund raised nearly £4,000 to support community needs following the mass violence in August.
It said the cash donated would go towards those “who suffered the most during the riots, helping to repair homes, replace damaged property and provide any necessary support services”, and “establish a multicultural centre in Darlington”.
“On August 5th, a tragic and horrifying event unfolded in Darlington,” reads the website. “Our community, known for its diversity and unity, was threatened by right wing activists… violent, racist and Islamophobic thugs.”
Four days after the fundraiser was launched, an update read: “Currently we have two young men from our community who will be facing hardship, it is our duty to help where we can to help ease the financial burden for them and their families.” Two young violent criminals, that is, who beat up an innocent white man.
A spokesperson explained: “The boys have been punished by the law but their families, who are part of our community, are still suffering with the financial burden of it all and you can tell by the amount of donations that people care and want to help.” So a short spell inside, and a nice little bonus for having stuck it to the white man. Just another wonderful example of community solidarity in multicultural Britain.
This article was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
