A fundraising event organised in support of a number of people who have been “arrested, jailed, or bailed” over recent racist disorder and attacks in Belfast has been branded “appalling” and “disheartening”.
The fundraiser is being organised by the Village Bonfire Committee in south Belfast and will take place in the Barrington Street Rangers Supporters Club next month.
More than 40 people have been arrested and 33 charged with numerous offences by police investigating recent disorder in the city.
Riots were sparked following a number of anti-immigration protests which were organised in parts of the city and the rest of Northern Ireland.
A post on the Village Bonfire Committee’s social media page advertising the event said all money raised on the night would be split evenly among the families of those “arrested, jailed or bailed”.
Earlier this month, the committee shared details of an anti-immigration protest at Belfast City Hall, stating: “Be there and be loud and proud, spread the word. No more immigration. Enough’s enough.”
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on the event when contacted by the Irish News.
Mr Kashif Akram, an executive committee member of the Belfast Islamic Centre, said Muslims in the community were “disheartened” to learn of the fundraising event.
Mr Akram told The Irish News: ”A lot of the community here in Belfast was very supportive and came out to counter these thugs and created fundraising campaigns to support the migrants who were impacted.
“The ones whose shops were burnt out, others who were forced out of their homes after they were vandalised.
“It shouldn’t be happening. Any fundraising that has been put together, people should know that it’s not going to benefit any community here in Belfast to support hate.
“No hateful person should be receiving any kind of funding at all.
“Some of these people are out of their livelihood, have had to move homes and there is the consequence of lost jobs as well.
“Seeing that there are funds being collected for people arrested and charged over this and created the situation is very disheartening.”
Mr Akram says there is not enough being done from all sides of the community in order to combat rising incidents of racist hate.
He said representatives from the Belfast Islamic Centre had met with local community groups in the days following the disorder, but that it now feels like “lip service”.
“There has to be a bit more of a push where we can sit down with community leaders as we call them, as well as members of the PSNI to try to rectify this.
“The fact that there are references given forward by the Orange Order on behalf of someone charged over this when we sat with these guys was disappointing.
“It seems now that everything that was said was lip service.”
Alliance South Belfast MLA Paula Bradshaw described the fundraising event as “appalling”.
“This is an appalling example of the ongoing failure of good relations and racial equality policy,” Ms Bradshaw told the Irish News.
“It goes without saying that the proceeds from any such event should in fact go to the victims of ongoing intimidation and attacks, of which there are now nearly four a day with a race hate motivation.”
New data from the PSNI this week showed that race hate incidents in the north are at an all time high, with around four such incidents now reported every day.
The latest figures, which were published on Thursday, were recorded before the recent spate of race-related incidents across parts of the north.
