Racism turns a society against itself and fractures communities

Racism must be confronted head on. It is a toxic cancer. If it is left to grow, it destroys societies from the inside by turning neighbours into targets and replacing justice with mob rule. I am English and my wife is Omani. We are both practising Muslims. She wears a hijab and she is frightened of being attacked. I have strong anti-racist views.
For these reasons we are both reluctant to visit the UK. Racism and xenophobia have increased. It is weakening the UK by driving communities apart, worsening inequality and eroding trust in politics and public services. Racism does not only harm individuals. It damages social cohesion and fuels social unrest. The UK has seen far-right Islamophobic attacks and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries , including riots targeting mosques, asylum-seeker accommodation and ethnic minority communities. These events spread fear and make it easier for extremists to claim they are “defending” society. Racism also gives ethnic minorities worse life opportunities—limiting access to jobs, housing and fair treatment. Consequently ethnic minority communities often face higher risks of poverty.
Data consistently points to wider gaps in unemployment and housing outcomes, and wider wage gaps for Black, Asian and Muslim groups compared with white British people. Discrimination in public services reduces trust in institutions. People can feel targeted by policing and the criminal justice system, including disproportionate stop-and-search for Black people. There is also evidence that counter-terrorism measures such as “Prevent” can unfairly alienate Muslim communities. When politicians and the media scapegoat migrants and minorities, this strengthens extremist ideas and increases division. Racism avoids facts.
The common pattern is to start with a conclusion—“crime is mainly committed by immigrants” or “by people like X”—then select whatever evidence seems to fit, ignoring any official data which contradicts it. When the argument uses official homicide statistics correctly—such as those for England and Wales that record ethnicity for principal suspects and for those convicted—it does not support the sweeping claims made by racists. Racists thrive on simplified stories that treat one crime as proof about an entire community and they ignore the difference between what statistics show and what slogans insist on. Still, the racist narrative keeps being weaponised through a steady stream of cases.
On 3rd December 2025, Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old white university student, was murdered in Southampton by 23-year-old British Sikh Vickrum Singh Digwa. Sikh groups quickly condemned the murder and made clear they were not responsible for the killer’s actions. But the far right exploited the case. Racists gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station before marching towards Digwa’s family home. Several far-right figures—including white supremest convicted criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), UKIP leader Nick Tenconi and Laurence Fox—addressed the crowd. Violence broke out, with missiles thrown at police, vehicles damaged and some people performing Nazi salutes while shouting “white power”. The same script appeared in Northern Ireland.
After an attack in which Hadi Alodid, a Sudanese man, has been charged with attempted murder, racist protesters, many masked, gathered across Belfast. They set fire to a bus and several cars and residents reported that a building near the city centre was also set alight and that petrol bombs were thrown. This is where the contrast is stark.
In 2025 there were many, many more murders in the UK, including the killings of Igor Pavlov by Anthony Ellis, Dawn Rhodes by Robert Rhodes, Alana Odysseos by Shaine March, Leiland-James Corkill by Laura Castle and Rico Burton by Liam O’Pray. The list is endless. After these murders, there were no riots, no Nazi salutes, no attacks on innocent people unconnected to those tragedies and no widespread blame being assigned to the communities of the convicted murderers. Why? Because the offenders were “indigenous” whites, including people of different religions and social backgrounds.