Muslims have defiantly vowed to protect mosques across the UK after they were attacked by far-right mobs in nightly riots that show no signs of abating.
More than a dozen towns and cities across the UK have seen outbreaks of violence, spurred on by right-wing agitators on social media in the wake of the killing of three children at a summer dance class on Merseyside.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a “standing army” of specialist police officers would be set up to deal with rioting and unrest.
Since the killings in Southport last Monday, nightly violence has broken out with clashes between mobs and police, and attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.
In the north-east town of Middlesbrough, more than 300 people stood guard outside the Jamia Masjid Al Madinah on Sunday night as violent protesters marched through the streets destroying cars and property, including university buildings.
It was a scene mirrored across the country as rioters armed themselves with weapons to attack mosques.
Witnesses told The National how they watched in horror as parents even handed young children missiles to throw.
The rioting led Mr Starmer to call an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday as courts began dealing with the first cases, with many of the suspected offenders remanded in custody.
So far there have been 378 arrests, with ages ranging from 14 to 69. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has warned that the total is expected to rise each day.
The number included 43 people arrested as a result of the violence in Middlesbrough.
Mohammed Yaqoob, chairman of the Jamia Masjid Al Madinah mosque in Middlesbrough, was visibly upset as he recounted the horror scenes outside his mosque on Sunday night.
“We guarded our mosque when we heard the rioters were coming,” he told The National as the clean-up operation began on Monday.
“Not just Muslims but the community came to support us too. We were not going to let them harm the mosque.”
His colleague, Najabat Ramzan, said they and Muslims across the country will be standing together to protect their places of worship.
“More than 300 people came to help us and stood alongside the police to protect the mosques,” Mr Ramzan said.
“The violence began at 2pm and we were here until the early hours of Monday morning standing guard.
“We want to send a message to the thugs that mosques are our pride and joy and we will stand and protect them.
"They are places of peace where people come to pray, they have done no harm to anyone and we will not let people come here and vandalise them.
"Our message is clear: 'You are not welcome, go away.'”
Mr Ramzan said thousands of people from across the area joined the Muslim community in helping to clean up the damage, in which cars were smashed and burnt out, and shops attacked.
“We had everybody helping in the clear-up operation,” he added.
“This town is not just one community, it is mixed. We are all Middlesbrough, all Teesside and we are proud to be from Middlesbrough.
"We stick together as one community and no one will divide us.”
Teesside University student Sinead Conway and her friends had witnessed the disorder and tried to help and had returned on Monday to help the residents clear up the damage.
“People were standing outside the mosques to protect them as the rioters threw bricks and tried to set them on fire,” she told The National.
“When they couldn't get through they started smashing people's windows and cars. Some of them had brought young children as young as six and handed them rocks to throw.
"In one road every car was smashed and today we went to help clean up the damage.”
The disorder, which started a week ago when false rumours incorrectly identified a man accused of murdering three young girls as an asylum seeker, was replicated in Rotherham in South Yorkshire, and Tamworth, Staffordshire, where hotels housing asylum seekers were attacked on Sunday.
On Monday, police and Muslims stood guard outside a mosque in Stockton, 5km from Middlesbrough, after rumours more attacks were planned.
There was further violence in Birmingham and Plymouth on Monday evening, with police forces reporting more arrests for a range of public order offences and assaults.
Anti-hate organisation Tell Mama, which monitors anti-Muslim attacks, said it had called the police after it “identified more far-right threats on Telegram that seek to target immigration solicitors and refugee services” in more than 30 locations across the country on Wednesday.
Iqbal Mohamed, a recently elected independent MP, told The National that social media monitoring had suggested that “agitators and racist thugs” were planning to come to Batley and Dewsbury this week.
The West Yorkshire constituency’s population is 35 per cent Muslim and has 42 mosques within its boundary, making it a potential flashpoint for the anti-immigration rioters who have attacked towns and cities across Britain. MP Jo Cox was murdered outside her constituency office there by a far-right terrorist in 2016.
“This information is not verified and I don't want to scaremonger, but the message to the normal residents and peace-loving people is, do not engage,” Mr Mohamed said. “We cannot be goaded into responding.”
Mr Mohamed, who disclosed that the intelligence had been received at lunchtime on Monday, will meet police chiefs to help “avoid things escalating”.
“I would ask our constituents not to organise counter protests and [to] go about their normal business in a sensible, safe way. Try not to be alone and put yourself in potential harm’s way or at risk.”
He said the images of the recent rioting were “terrifying for people and completely unacceptable”, and that the “image of Britain is being tarnished by the day”.
Meanwhile, refugee support services and lawyers who work with refugees are being threatened with attack by a far-right group.
A post on a Telegram channel called for people to “mask up” and congregate outside the offices of 39 organisations on Wednesday evening.
The Home Office brought in urgent measures on Sunday to make sure mosques were offered finance for extra protection so any threats of more attacks on places of worship could be responded to quickly.
The government has so far resisted calls to bring in the army and has insisted the police already have the resources needed to respond.
“My focus is on ensuring we have got the right people carrying out their duties to ensure that our streets are safe,” Mr Starmer said.
“For the public, that is the first duty of government and that is where my absolute focus is.”
Amid the biggest challenge to his premiership so far, Mr Starmer gave an address to the nation on Sunday, hours before the mosque attacks, telling perpetrators they would “regret” engaging in “far-right thuggery” and promising those involved in unrest that they would “face the full force of the law”.
Former home secretary Priti Patel said she would not feel safe in some of the areas where violence unfolded and that the racism on display was no different from that of the 1970s and 1980s.
The unrest has prompted some MPs to demand Parliament is recalled, so the problems can be debated in the Commons, as it was during the 2011 London riots.
Labour MP Diane Abbott told the BBC that Parliament should be recalled because MPs “don’t know” what ministers are doing to tackle the riots.
“This is an extraordinarily grave situation," Ms Abbott said.
"You’ve got people trying to burn down hostels where asylum seekers are cowering. You’ve got people attacking black and Muslim people on the street.
“We need to be able to question ministers on what exactly is being done and we want to speak up for our communities.
"These are racist anti-immigrant riots, and we need proper debate and proper analysis in the House of Commons.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the courts are on “standby” to ensure “swift justice”.
