A violent wave of civil unrest and a flood of disinformation on social media have once again brought the U.K.'s Leeds into the limelight. The contemporary Leeds riots kicked off in Harehills, a deprived area of Leeds, adjacent to Chapeltown, which has a history of bad press.
The current riots clearly reflect how disinformation is a deadly virus in the age of social media that causes irreparable damage.
By all standards, Leeds is a vibrant, diverse, rising economic hub, home to world-ranking universities, the birthplace of leading businesses and a future city with green lush parks. That’s one description of my second home.
Conversely, from the fierce rivalry between the Leeds United and Manchester United football clubs often described as a "war of roses," Leeds has been associated with social disorder and rioting.
Since 2001, Leeds, a historic city in the north of England, has witnessed a series of distasteful social unrest. In 2005, Leeds was associated with the "London bombers" and since then the city has been struggling to restore its positive image. Once again, Muslims became the scapegoats as a handful of right-wing politicians and media persons accused Muslims of rioting.
The reality is the opposite of what far-right folks are disseminating on social media. Previously, Leeds lost its bid for the "European Capital of Culture in 2023" because of the "Brexit bombshell" and today, it is fighting for its fair image. Coincidently, British politician Nigel Farage’s intellect was behind both predicaments.
The question arises: Can disinformation be defeated? What can be done?
The Leeds riots aroused the same old story; anywhere violence flares up and rioting happens, sections of the British media and polity rush to blame British Muslims. That’s not an empty statement but in fact, a documented fact.
For a long time, British Muslims have been facing mainstream rhetoric, that they are incompatible with British values and that all social ills in British society exist because of Muslims.
As the Leeds riots kicked off, the first narrative appeared on various platforms of the new media, including Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp, that "Pakistanis," "Asians" and "Muslims" were behind the violence. A Twitter handle, OliLondonTV, a hypocrite, rushed to tweet: "Hundreds of Muslims riot in Harehills, Leeds smashing police vehicles and attacking officers. Meanwhile this is the newly elected local councilor. Is anyone surprised?"
Most people wouldn’t bother to check facts and since Muslims are easy targets and sensationalism is the best-selling tactic, thousands of new media followers hurried to embrace the anti-Muslim narrative. As a result, a Muslim councilor who helped defuse the situation by putting his life at risk was depicted as "extremist," "radical," "backward" and a "perpetrator."
GBNews host Patrick Christys Tonight's "Big debates, big news, and big opinions" headline read, "We don’t want a bunch of Muslim councillors dictating U.K. foreign policy," and Talk TV host Alex Phillips blustering "call me a racist, I don’t care" and "white women are fair game" live sentiment stirred hatred rather than trying to find a solution to the problem of "unintegrated migrants."
Evidently, Talk TV ran episodes of anti-Muslim loathing saying, "Areas of Britian effectively Islamic." Well, this limited space is not enough to respond to such distorted and uninformed views.
The Daily Mail featured this in their headline: "Moment controversial Leeds Green Party ‘Gaza councillor’ Mothin Ali heroically stops rioters from burning more things in riots screaming 'there are children in there.'" The newspaper admitted his "heroic" efforts but didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tag him as a “Gaza councillor” and presented him as “controversial” because he raised concerns over the thousands of killings of innocent civilians in Gaza by the world's most powerful and well-equipped army. Evidently speaking, Ali’s view of Gaza is not exceptional as thousands of Jewish, Christian and even atheist academics, writers, journalists and activists believe the same.
Express, The Guardian and The Independent presented the Green Party councilor as "brave," "unrest resolver," "support worker," an advocate of "unity" and a hero who "formed a human shield to stop violence."
Then you have a stream of social media warriors like YouTubers, Tik-Tokers and Facebook live streamers who didn’t care about privacy and ruined the "code of ethics" by picturing and showing children under 16. Can the government bring them to justice for the damage they have caused?
What about hate crime legislation? After all, British legislation on "hate crime" (the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020) applies to the new Leeds riots because British Muslims were presented as "criminals," "rioters" and "extremists" without proof. The reality is that the rioting involved the Roma community. Yet, I would never blame the entire Roma community for the fault of a handful of irresponsible Roma people in Leeds.
Farage is the British media darling. Most often, he stirs hatred using extreme language and floats unchecked biased views. Strange though, thousands of Brits admire his thoughts. He was the one who pushed for Brexit but failed to convince the intellectual class that his ideas were founded. The BBC branded him, "Mr. Brexit."
Farage smartly discovered how sections of the British media, polity, public bodies, pressure groups and lobbyists trade the buzzword "Muslim" for their own political and economic gains.
As the Leeds riots kicked off, Farage came on the TV screen and quickly cashed in on the situation by branding the Leeds riots “politics of the subcontinent” without knowing anything about the real issue that sparked the riots.
Farage reminded me of the former Labour politician Jack Straw, whose controversies made him a media darling like Frage himself by scapegoating and tagging Muslims with social ills, from Hijab-wearing Muslim women because he "felt uneasy" and "white girls seen as 'easy meat' for Pakistani rapists."
Straw deeply regretted his statements, but it was too late to repair the damage. It was exactly that time when I was told by a white girl that "Asians are sleazy." Ah! Can someone repair my broken heart?
Still, I must say it out loud, not all sections of the British media, polity and every white person are the same as Farage and those yelling at Muslims on TV screens, as there are also professor Keith Laybourn and journalist Philippa Joy. So, I let him rant knowing that people like Farage can’t take Britain any further than Brexit. The country needs brilliant, hardworking, academics, journalists, businesspeople, doctors, nurses, teachers and honest workers.
Leeds is an unfortunate city as it has seen several riots. The question arises what can be done? Are riots a product of disintegration? But Balkan Muslims were fully integrated into Serbia as they followed the same costumes and traditions, for example. Are riots happening because certain communities have bad press? Everyone is biased to an extent, and there is no place on our planet where perfection exists.
Yet, there is a solution. GBNews and several other TV channels and newspapers are running talk shows and publishing fake stories inviting far-right misanthropes to forcefully tag Muslims with rioting. So where are the authorities? Surely, if the government admires community cohesion and fosters a truly integrated society then it must bar hate speech and halt misanthropes. Such a move may shield Leeds from riots in the future.
