“The assault in Ballymena is the latest in a long string of heinous, misogynistic sexual crimes”
The far right has seized on the horrific sexual assault of a girl to launch racist pogroms in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
Racist thugs have rioted with fireworks, glass bottles and pieces of metal, and torched houses in the town since Monday night.
Some terrified families have displayed their nationalities on their front doors in a desperate bid to stop rioters from targeting them. They have put up signs such as “locals live here” alongside the Union flag.
One video shows a group masked-men shouting, “You’re raping our babies,” outside a house before smashing the doors and windows and starting a fire.
A Ballymena resident, 19-year old Zuzanna, described the terror of living in the town. “I can only imagine what it’s like living maybe more in the centre of town and you hear it coming closer and closer to you,” she said.
“And you just you don’t know who’s next and what’s going to happen next.”
The violence has spread to towns such as Coleraine and Larne, where masked thugs set alight a leisure centre sheltering people.
The far right has hypocritically latched onto the sexual assault of a girl in Ballymena.
Two 14-year-old boys had been charged with attempted rape and appeared in court in connection with the crime. The charges were read out in court to the boys by a Romanian interpreter.
The police made a third arrest of a 28-year old man on Monday night, but released him unconditionally following questioning.
The idea that migrants pose a greater threat trivialises sexist violence and distorts the facts to push racist lies.
Most people who suffer sexual assault or rape aren’t attacked by migrants or other “strangers”. Around 90 percent of people who are raped know their attacker—and most child abuse takes place in the family.
United Against Racism said the problem is sexism, not migrants. It says, “The assault in Ballymena is the latest in a long string of heinous, misogynistic sexual crimes in Northern Ireland, which is statistically a dangerous place for women and girls.
“Women’s safety is routinely ignored, women are blamed for the crimes that are committed against them, their humanity is routinely undermined by toxic masculinity.”
United Against Racism said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the appalling racism on display in Ballymena”.
“The outrage felt by people in Ballymena at the profoundly disturbing sexual assault of a young girl has clearly been taken advantage of by the far right in order to whip up racist chaos.”
Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Stormont government have issued a statement. It is made up of republican party Sinn Fein, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) bigots, the liberal Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party.
“We strongly condemn the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days and make an urgent appeal for calm across society,” the statement says.
But if the far right murders anyone, the blood is on the hands of the politicians who stoked racism in Northern Ireland.
Communities minister Gordon Lyons of the bigots DUP party revealed that migrant families who’d fled their homes were sheltering at the Larne leisure centre. He has refused to resign—and complained that he is the victim of a “political pile on”.
Other Unionist politicians have been stoking racism against migrants.
Eamonn McCann, the veteran socialist and civil rights activist, said, “The scenes we’re witnessing in Ballymena, Larne and elsewhere are vile and indefensible attempted pogroms.
“These attacks haven’t occurred out of thin air, however. In a context of community frustration at deprivation, waiting lists and crumbling public services, far right agitators are spreading racist lies on social media to blame migrants.
“And Unionist politicians have deliberately fanned the flames of their hate.”
Eamonn slammed the “Unionist politicians who bear serious responsibility for the hateful scenes of recent days”.
“They dog-whistled and whipped up racist sentiments,” he said. “Loyalist paramilitaries and far right agitators took the next logical step, attacking ordinary people and making them fear for their lives.”
Anti-racists are organising to take on the racist lies and push back the far right.
United Against Racism has called a rally outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday under the banner, Stop the violence, stop the hate.”