Last week I wrote about The Troubles, a period of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland half a century ago. This week Belfast (and many other places throughout UK) have been rocked by violence of a different sort. I don’t know how much global coverage this incident got, but last week there was a mass stabbing in the UK involving children at a dance studio. Three little girls died, others were injured.

The police initially did not release the identify of the attacker because he was underage, and rumors immediately spread that he was Muslim immigrant, which he was not. That, together with prevaling anti-immigration sentiment, led to dozens of anti-Muslim riots flaring up throughout the UK, including Belfast.

I was walking to my AirBnB Saturday evening and walked into this scene with dozens of armored swat vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, cop cars, and a helicopter hovering overhead. The scene was on a street I needed to get through to get to my lodging, but it was barricaded, with the cops telling us no one was allowed through because a riot was in progress. “I suggest you get yourself a cup of coffee and wait it out for a couple hours, until this gets under control” is what he said to me.

I wasn’t too keen on sitting for a couple hours in the midst of a drunken mob, so I tried to call an Uber. A driver accepted but then called back and said police were not allowing any cars into the area. So I started walking down a street that looked quiet, but soon realized that the reason it was so quiet was that it was completely blocked off to any traffic. I later learned that the rioters were headed towards an Islamic Center that was nearby, so as a precaution all the streets leading to it were shut down.

By then it was about 10:30 PM and I was starting to panic a bit. I texted my BnB host, telling him I was going to be late checking in, and he immediately offered to come get me. A few minutes later he texted back saying he couldn’t get into the area either. But he guided me to walk to an area that was still open to traffic, and finally managed to extract me out of that chaos! Guess who is getting a 5-star rating on AirBnb….

The mob damaged a number of local Muslim-owned businesses. A cafe was torched, windows smashed, stores ransacked. Several police officers were injured. This is what it looked like when I walked by it the next morning. It was heartbreaking to watch some of the shop owners up early, inspecting the damage and trying to pick up the pieces.