Moygashel, United Kingdom. Police in Northern Ireland arrested a 56-year-old man on Thursday after a replica of a mosque was placed on top of a bonfire due to be lit in the pro-British town of Moygashel. The action was condemned by the British government and politicians from across the political spectrum.
Arrest over bonfire display
Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of displaying threatening, abusive or insulting material intended to stir up hatred.
The replica mosque was placed on a tall structure made of wooden pallets. Banners below it read “secure our borders” and “end the threat of radical Islam”. The replica also featured an effigy of a person in one window holding an item that looked like a knife.
Political condemnation
Britain’s minister for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, said the display did not represent the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland.
“This is not about tradition and in no way does it represent the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland. We must stand united and completely reject such hatred,” Benn wrote on X, describing it as a “sickening and cowardly act of intimidation”.
Colm Gildernew of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party called on police to remove what he described as a clear hate crime. The main pro-British parties also condemned the action.
Context of annual bonfires
Bonfires are lit across Northern Ireland in mainly Protestant loyalist neighbourhoods on the eve of July 12 commemorations marking William of Orange’s victory over the Roman Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
Anti-migrant imagery has in some cases replaced pictures and effigies of Catholic Irish politicians and anti-Catholic slogans that have commonly appeared on some bonfires.
Recent tensions
The display in Moygashel came a month after anti-migrant violence swept Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
At the same location in Moygashel last year, a model of refugees in a boat was set alight following a period of violence in which migrants’ homes were attacked.
Last month, rioters targeted homes and businesses belonging to ethnic minorities after a viral video showed a stabbing in which a man lost an eye. A man whom police say is from Sudan or Chad has been charged with attempted murder.