Tayyaba Rehan is a student at the National Defence University. She is currently pursuing her degree in defense and strategic studies. She has worked with multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations. Her articles have been published in national as well as international publications.

Zara Zahid Khan is a law student at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. She is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about legal and political issues.

The new wave of hate and riots against immigrants in the UK arose due to several incidents that aggravated xenophobia and Islamophobia. These riots took a surge after the killings of three young girls on 29 July during a Taylor Swift dance workshop. The knife attack left nine other children wounded and in critical condition as well. A 17-year-old male suspect was arrested following the incident. The identity of the suspect was not revealed at the time because, as per the law in the UK, specifically Section 49 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1993, the identity of minors who have committed an offense has to be concealed.

However, the attacks promulgated an avalanche of misinformation on different social media platforms such as X and Instagram. These posts claimed that the suspect in the case was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a boat. Sky News reported a tweet by the account European Invasion which asserted that the attacker was an illegal migrant named Ali Al Shakati who came to the UK in 2024.

These baseless rumors, fueled by social media, led to far-right riots which included a group of a hundred attacking a mosque with bricks and other objects in Southport, resulting in 39 police officers being injured. The attackers were chanting anti-immigration and Islamophobic slogans such as “English Until I Die.” The Imam of the mosque was trapped inside the mosque till midnight and mentioned to reporters that “…he was scared for his life and asked the Muslim community to remain home and pray for their safety.”

This attack led to an exceptional case hearing in which Judge Andrew Menary KC rejected the request to conceal the identity of the stabber in light of recent events, and it was revealed that the attacker was not a Muslim illegal migrant but a boy, Axel Rudakabana, who was born in the UK. The misinformation that spread across TikTok and X was the main reason the riots went out of control. Far-right supporter Andrew Tate posted on X about how the........

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