4,000 rally at Belfast City Hall to challenge racists

THOUSANDS of people angry at First Minister Peter Robinson’s support for fundamentalist Christian preacher James McConnell’s anti-Muslim diatribe gathered at Belfast City Hall on Saturday 31 May to ‘Say No to Racism’.

In a sermon preached in his north Belfast hall on 18 May, McConnell stated that Islam was “satanic”.

Yet despite the obvious offence caused by the remarks senior figures within the DUP, including the First Minister, endorsed his views with Peter Robinson agreeing that he ‘wouldn’t trust a Muslim’.

The McConnell outburst – coming in the middle of a wave of racist attacks on people from Africa, Eastern and Central Europe living in the North but mainly in Belfast and mostly carried out by the UVF – was seen as a justification for racism and Islamophobia.

The rally heard a range of speakers, including Alliance MLA Anna Lo and (to a mixed reaction) Councillor Julie Ann Corr of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF which is, in turn, widely held to be responsible for numerous racist attacks in Belfast.

Sinn Féin joint First Minister Martin McGuinness has challenged Robinson to confront the UVF over the attacks but the DUP leader had refused to do so. (The DUP belatedly gave an apology on Robinson’s Muslims remarks when the DUP’s Jonathan Bell appeared on the Stephen Nolan BBC Radio Ulster show on Tuesday morning.)

Racist ‘Billy Boys’ ignored by PSNI

Numerous people have accused the PSNI of aggressiveness in their handling of Saturday’s protest with some describing their decision to force demonstrators onto the area in front of City Hall as “kettling”.

The PSNI’s aggressive behaviour on Saturday stands in stark contrast to their kid-glove response to loyalist Union flag protesters.

When a handful of flag protesters turned up on Saturday and began singing the sectarian ‘Billy Boys’ song they went unchallenged by the PSNI despite its overt sectarianism and racism.

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