Riots causing me (Muslim female) anxiety.

[Mavan1984]

I am a Muslim hijab wearing woman (born and brought up in this country). I have 3 kids under the age of 16 and the riots are causing me a great deal of anxiety. Me and dh had planned to take the kids out this weekend but we cancelled because we didn't think it was safe. I feel like we are better off just staying at home throughout the summer to protect ourselves and the kids.

I have had racist comments made at me before, but I don't want my kids to experience this. I feel like the rioting will empower others to be openly racist. I experienced this when 9/11 happened and I am just so scared because this time it feels a lot worse.

Me and dh were born to immigrant parents who worked very hard in menial jobs to educate us. We both have professional careers, but at this moment in time I feel like none of this matters and we are being attacked. Will it get any better? How can I protect my family?

A lot of my Muslim friends are feeling the same and it feels as though we have a very bleak future in this country.

I am so sorry you feel like this in your own country. I remember 9/11 and how it was after for my Muslim friends and colleagues it was scary and totally unacceptable. Sadly History has shown that economic down turns and political instability leads to scapegoating and racism. I watched on insta probably one of the kindest celebrities justifying his support for reform- I was utterly shocked and disappointed with his flimsy arguments. For example our town centres are a mess due to our changing consumer habits (blame Amazon!) and not simply due to immigration. I watched a video recently about companies not paying corporation taxes, had they paid the appropriate tax a number of social issues such as funding for the NHS would more than be solved. But we don't go and protest by refusing to buy these products or services because it makes our lives easier!

These protests are not a reflection of society's views, an aggressive minority with a culture of misinformation, misguided entitlement and a handful of powerful ignorant men backing them. It won't last, it can't because these protesters don't have a real cause or support.

I know this won't happen in the short term but please know the majority of society do not support them, stay safe in this time of uncertainty and know it won't last.

As Charlie Chaplin said 'We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.'

Because if I didn't MN would think I was being racist. Because everyone is racist according to MN.

Where have I condoned it? I said that I understand why they are doing it (just like the black people who rioted in Brixton or the Asians in Bradford). That does not mean I condone rioting.

But if we do not listen to them then we will end up like France and Germany. They swept the extreme right under the carpet and look what has happened.

I know exactly how the voting system works in France.

Sorry, but you will never experience racism like I have. My husband is white and he has never experienced racism and cannot possibly understand how I feel.

So what is the alternative? Just ignore them and hope they go away. Well I can tell you that they didn't go away in France and Germany, they just got more powerful and the same thing will happen here.

I assume that you are white, so this will not affect you.

We need to listen to them just like we listened to the black rioters in Brixton and the Asians in Bradford.

Unfortunately, the white Labour leaders will just ignore them, just like Macron and Merkel did.

"We want our country back" means we are fed up of not being listened to and so we will riot until you take us seriously.

It really is not difficult to understand unless you are white and middle class, which I assume that you are.

Ageed.

But some many people on here cannot see it.

They are happy with their lot and so just expect everyone else to be.

Well, they are not, hence the riots.

I AM NOT DEFENDING THE RIOTS.

HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO SAY THIS.

YOU JUST CARRY ON HEARING WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR.

Who have you spoken to, and what did the conversation consist of?

You keep saying we need to listen to them. I completely agree that the key to solving this problem is to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in this country. I don't believe they'd be rioting if they were living good lives. However, these people are largely acting on misinformation. The right wing media and right wing social media activists have been exaggerating issues, lying and stirring up hatred. They never report the benefits of immigration or anything positive about Muslim communities for example.
So let's say we listen to a typical rioter as you suggest, they'll say "We've had enough! We can't afford decent housing or to feed the family but "illegals" are housed, get benefits, while British people are on the streets". I've read these statements a thousand times and there's so much that not correct. I've worked in housing for the council. Huge efforts are made to get British people off the streets but it often fails when someone is a drug addict and has mental health problems and simply isn't capable of maintaining a house. So money is spent on homeless shelters as well. The reason people can't afford decent housing or to pay the bills is complex and multifaceted. It's not because of brown people! Removing all refugees and attacking brown skinned British people will change nothing for those who are rioting.
Yes we need to urgently listen to the concerns of those who are rioting, of those who are disadvantaged. We need to improve their prospects, make life bearable for them. But they don't have the solutions. They've been sold snake oil.

I am white. My DH and children are not. It will affect me. The rioting is already affecting us.
You haven't actually answered though. What is it you think they want? And when do you think they will be satisfied?

The “protesters” lost me as soon as they started acting like absolute savages. Hitting lone men walking past, attacking the police, looting shops, setting fire to buildings with people inside.
I’m not interested in what they have to say tbh.

no one is listening to them

Are you serious? Listening to right wing thugs, looters, racist? What do you think. anybody has to learn from these knuckle draggers who are hell bent on terrorising people, willing to vomit over the memory of murdered children and wreck the peace and security of any neighbourhood they enter?
These rent a mob thugs who clearly are able to turn up at a minutes notice (no doubt many of them living off the state) have no legitimate cause.
They can use the ballot box to express their views but they probably never went near a polling station!
Migrants, legal or illegal, are not the cause of their woes.
These dregs of society are the putty in the hands of pro Nazi and conspiracy theorists.
Listen to them - aye right.

My daughter’s boyfriend is from Turkey. He told us that they have had millions of refugees pour into their country from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine etc. They have so many that they leave a lot of rubbish on the beach (which the Ukrainians clean up in gratitude apparently!).
Turkish people also don’t like it and they are accommodating way more refugees than anything the UK has to deal with but they don’t seem to be rioting.

Many countries are dealing with refugees - the world is more unstable than it used to be.

I hate to say it and it’s totally unfair but at one point do you say enough is enough and leave for another country for safety? It’s all good to say “no go out, you shouldn’t have to stay locked inside because of right wing thugs” but in reality it is going to get so much worse and right now the country is very very unsafe for these people. At what point do you decide enough is enough. Would be fine if this sentiment was shrinking but the numbers are getting so large now you can see the tipping point is coming. These riots are nothing watch what happens at the next stabbing this is going to be nuclear and at what point is it safer just to leave for the sake of the safety of your family. When nazi germany started with societal discrimination of the Jews large numbers emigrated for their lives now imagine they hadn’t left? Many more Jews would have perished. I feel this is the same situation and we are actively telling people to ignore their instinct to flee all because they “shouldn’t have to”.

Have you lived in France or Germany, or even ever been there?

How do you know millions are racist there, can you qualify your assertions?

Are you saying the rioters in the UK over the past week aren't racist? Is that what you're saying!

I hate to say it and it’s totally unfair but at what point do you say enough is enough and leave for another country for safety? It’s all good to say “no go out, you shouldn’t have to stay locked inside because of right wing thugs” but in reality it is going to get so much worse and right now the country is very very unsafe for these people. At what point do you decide enough is enough. Would be fine if this sentiment was shrinking but the numbers are getting so large now you can see the tipping point is coming. These riots are nothing watch what happens at the next stabbing this is going to be nuclear and at what point is it safer just to leave for the sake of the safety of your family. When nazi germany started with societal discrimination of the Jews large numbers emigrated for their lives now imagine they hadn’t left? Many more Jews would have perished. I feel this is the same situation and we are actively telling people to ignore their instinct to flee all because they “shouldn’t have to”.
Edited

"We want our country back"

Tell me what country you have lost and I'll make sure I never go there.
I would not want to live in any country with a pile of thugs randomly shifting from town to town, trying to kill our police officers, shopkeepers and fellow citizens. I don't want my car set alight, my neighbours place of worship firebombed or peoples houses come under siege.
I don't want to live within a hundred miles of looters and racists and people who are so mindless they can be whipped into thuggery by ill informed e mails.
I would be chronically ashamed if anybody I knew vomited like this over the memory of murdered little children and their families and thought they were entitled to travel around causing random terror.
These people are waving anarchist symbols scrawled over the English and Union Jack - you seriously expect me to listen to an Anarchist who thinks they are the superior species I should listen to?
Aye right.

No, the small boats started in 2018 before we left the EU.

So what do you sugget we do? Do we just ignore them and let the extreme right grow as it has done in France and Germany?

France and Germany are still in the EU and they have a much worse far right problem than we do (at the moment).

no one is listening to them

all I've heard them shouting is 'fuck off'

they don't seem to have any kind of message other than that basic line

But we still have to listen to them and not ignore them like Macron and Merkel did or we will end up with a very powerful far right just like in France and Germany.

But we still have to listen to them and not ignore them

Hopefully they’ll be imprisoned very soon.

We're all listening aren't we? There's very little else being talked about. It is still not very clear exactly what "they" want.

It is not rubbish. The only way they can make their voices heard is by rioting.

Of course it is sickening, but this is what happens when people are ignored just like what happened with the riots in Brixton.

I feel so sorry for the police. The politicians have caused this mess but it is the police who are being attacked.

The USA has a far right wing problem - they are not in the EU. There is a growth in right wing ideology, the rent a mobs are easily stirred by people like Trump, Farage and the right wing press. It doesn't make their views correct - the peace loving people vastly outnumber the racist thugs, it's just that the racist thugs grab attention by their extreme behaviour.
The good people need to drown them out - not listen to them.