Following the stabbing in Edinburgh’s Calders area on 2 March, anti-immigrant protesters took to the streets in hopes to raise awareness against illegal immigration. In response, Hope Not Hate, with the support of Stand Up to Racism and Trade Unions in Communities, held a counter-protest at the same time and location. While the groups seemed to directly clash, their underlying motivations were likely very different.
Mustafa Kokoneh, the perpetrator of the crime, has been charged with the attempted murder of two people and assault of two others. Having migrated from Libya in 2019, he was granted citizenship in 2023, the same year he moved north to Scotland. However, the right-wing protesters didn’t see it this way. After the incident, Malcolm Offord, the leader of Reform UK in Scotland, linked the stabbing to an insurge of illegal immigrants while commenting on photographs he had seen. An important figure for the political right, Offord is believed to have fuelled tensions in the area, creating divisions in the Calders community and ultimately inflaming right-wing protesters. This information begs the question: did they even know why they were there in the first place?
Misinformation about immigration has been a key inflammatory issue recently. The fact of the matter is, the radical right picked a scapegoat and many chose to follow. However, the lack of true awareness is clear when looking closer at situations like these. It begins with comments made by individuals like Offord, who in this situation pointed to statistics supposedly confirming the rise of crime perpetrated by foreigners – even though scholarship suggests the opposite and Scotland doesn’t publish figures on the relationship between ethnicity or immigration status and crime. With a narrative that the designated in-group must join together against the out-group, right-wing leaders are able to lead groups to protest in ways like the Calders anti-immigrant group did. With no actual knowledge of the situation, made clear by the belief that Kokoneh wasn’t a citizen, and a means that was misaligned with its end, the protest was doomed to be unsuccessful from the start. Therein lies the problem with this protest and anti-immigrant sentiment: goals like ending crime and unemployment aren’t solved by hyper-focusing on immigration, that simply isn’t the root of the problem.
On the other hand, the counter-protesters likely did achieve their goals. Counter-protesting is a strategy that, when done correctly, can be used to undermine a cause. Often, one of the ways by which this is achieved is by drawing media attention away from the original protest and towards the counter-protest. The Calders counter-protest did exactly this. The existence of a counter-protest drew more police attention due to the risk of conflict and, in turn, drew more media attention that was evenly split between the two groups. With a more clearly defined, achievable goal, the counter-protesting group was able to be successful.
“Official portrait of Lord Offord of Garvel crop 2, 2025 (cropped 2)” by © House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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Will Anti-Immigration Protestors in Edinburgh Realise Immigration Isn’t the Problem?
Following the stabbing in Edinburgh’s Calders area on 2 March, anti-immigrant protesters took to the streets in hopes to raise awareness against illegal immigration. In response, Hope Not Hate, with the support of Stand Up to Racism and Trade Unions in Communities, held a counter-protest at the same time and location. While the groups seemed to directly clash, their underlying motivations were likely very different.
Mustafa Kokoneh, the perpetrator of the crime, has been charged with the attempted murder of two people and assault of two others. Having migrated from Libya in 2019, he was granted citizenship in 2023, the same year he moved north to Scotland. However, the right-wing protesters didn’t see it this way. After the incident, Malcolm Offord, the leader of Reform UK in Scotland, linked the stabbing to an insurge of illegal immigrants while commenting on photographs he had seen. An important figure for the political right, Offord is believed to have fuelled tensions in the area, creating divisions in the Calders community and ultimately inflaming right-wing protesters. This information begs the question: did they even know why they were there in the first place?
Misinformation about immigration has been a key inflammatory issue recently. The fact of the matter is, the radical right picked a scapegoat and many chose to follow. However, the lack of true awareness is clear when looking closer at situations like these. It begins with comments made by individuals like Offord, who in this situation pointed to statistics supposedly confirming the rise of crime perpetrated by foreigners – even though scholarship suggests the opposite and Scotland doesn’t publish figures on the relationship between ethnicity or immigration status and crime. With a narrative that the designated in-group must join together against the out-group, right-wing leaders are able to lead groups to protest in ways like the Calders anti-immigrant group did. With no actual knowledge of the situation, made clear by the belief that Kokoneh wasn’t a citizen, and a means that was misaligned with its end, the protest was doomed to be unsuccessful from the start. Therein lies the problem with this protest and anti-immigrant sentiment: goals like ending crime and unemployment aren’t solved by hyper-focusing on immigration, that simply isn’t the root of the problem.
On the other hand, the counter-protesters likely did achieve their goals. Counter-protesting is a strategy that, when done correctly, can be used to undermine a cause. Often, one of the ways by which this is achieved is by drawing media attention away from the original protest and towards the counter-protest. The Calders counter-protest did exactly this. The existence of a counter-protest drew more police attention due to the risk of conflict and, in turn, drew more media attention that was evenly split between the two groups. With a more clearly defined, achievable goal, the counter-protesting group was able to be successful.
“Official portrait of Lord Offord of Garvel crop 2, 2025 (cropped 2)” by © House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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