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LONDON — For many Muslims and people of colour in Britain, riots led by far-right protesters in recent weeks, some demanding “we want our country back,” roused feelings of insecurity in a country that is home.

“They were emboldened once, so who is not to say there won’t be flash points again?” said Dhruti Shah, a British-born citizen of Indian and Kenyan heritage, referring to those who committed anti-immigrant violence.

After weeks of disorder, there was a partial reprieve yesterday, as more than 100 anti-immigrant protests expected around the nation were met with huge counter-protests — a show of anti-racism that stifled the far right. Peaceful protesters carried signs that read “Refugees welcome” and “Racists not welcome here.”

But British authorities have warned that further unrest could be possible.

Even if the anti-racists have numbers on their side, the violent protests highlight that there is a passionate minority who feel emboldened to display anti-immigrant and racist views.

At least some members of that minority were willing to engage in violence, which began after a stabbing attack that led to the deaths of three young children in Southport, England, last month.

Before the attacker was formally identified, misinformation about his identity and migration status swirled online.

The defendant, Axel Rudakubana, 17, is a British citizen born in Cardiff, Wales, to parents from Rwanda.

He is not an asylum seeker and did not enter the country illegally, as some on social media falsely claimed.

Some elected officials have voiced their own safety concerns.

Former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf told a podcast last week that the riots made him question whether he wanted to stay in Britain.

Yousaf, a Muslim born in Glasgow to Pakistani immigrants, said he has “for some time” been “worried about the rise of Islamophobia.”

“The truth of the matter is, I don’t know if the future for me, my wife and my three children is going to be here in Scotland or the United Kingdom or indeed in Europe and the West,” he said. 

Shah, 42, said the riots stole attention from the three girls who were killed and the other victims of the stabbing attack. While the counter-protests and displays of unity were “heart-warming,” she added, they do not mean the issue of racism in Britain has “gone away.”

As of Sunday, more than 700 people had been arrested nationwide in relation to the unrest.

Amy, a 34-year-old teacher in London whose mother is British and White and whose father is Nigerian and Black. Amy spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name because of safety concerns.

In some areas, including Walthamstow, patients received text messages advising that their doctor’s office would close early to avoid “threatened disruption.”

Nationwide, many shops, restaurants and pubs boarded their windows and doors. Some theatre shows were cancelled.

“Now is the time to please check in on your Black, Brown and minority friends, family, neighbours and colleagues,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote on X. “In many parts of the country, they don’t feel safe.”

Khan later told the Guardian he was “triggered” by the far-right riots. “What’s heartbreaking to me is my children’s generation had never experienced what I had,” he said. “And they, for the first time, were scared. I thought I’d be the last generation to be scared, simply for who I am.”

Shah, a journalist from West London, ordinarily enjoys a walk around her neighbourhood in the evening. But on Wednesday, she stayed home, urging her parents to do the same. Some in Shah’s family, who belong to the Jain faith, left a gathering early to get home as they were afraid they might get caught up in far-right protests.

“Why is it,” she asked, “simply because of the colour of my skin, that I am having to have conversations with my family about being careful when we go outside?”

Amy, meanwhile, has been wondering if she did the right thing by not attending Walthamstow’s counter-protests Wednesday. One of her White friends reassured her, saying, “It’s not for you to go; it’s for us to show up in the places where you don’t feel safe.”

Amy said images of anti-racism protesters flooding the streets she knows so well made her especially proud of her diverse hometown. “My faith in London is restored,” she said. “It gave me a new love for Walthamstow. It made people of colour and other minorities feel safe.”

Despite the threat of the far right descending, the people in Walthamstow made a defiant stand, she said. “They were like, ‘Absolutely not.’” – WashingtonPost.com