CNA Staff, 06 August, 2024 / 11:23 am (ACI Africa).
The Catholic bishops of the United Kingdom are praying for peace amid rioting sparked by the tragic stabbing of several schoolchildren by the son of Rwandan immigrants, saying “such violence threatens the values of our society.”
“I condemn the appalling violence over the past week, especially that directed at migrants and their places of residence,” Auxiliary Bishop Paul McAleenan of Westminster, the U.K.’s lead bishop for migrants and refugees, said in an Aug. 5 statement. “They demonstrate a complete disregard of the values which underpin the civil life of our country.”
The protests follow a stabbing attack at a children’s dance class in Southport, England, which left three young girls dead and nearly a dozen people injured in late July. According to the BBC, the 17-year-old suspect was born in the United Kingdom and his parents are immigrants from Rwanda, a predominantly Christian country in central Africa.
Reports have emerged of protestors attacking and damaging hotels housing asylum seekers, including a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Sunday night. About 240 asylum seekers who had been staying at the hotel were moved overnight after clashes between police and a crowd of hundreds of people, the BBC reported.
Amid promises by Prime Minister Kier Starmer to make rioters feel “the full force of the law,” police in the U.K. have arrested nearly 400 people since the protests began last week, and trials for some rioters have already begun.
