Bricklayer Tony Hill has been labelled a “legend” for helping the Southport community rebuild the local mosque wall.
Relaying bricks on the wall destroyed by far-right protesters on Tuesday, a video showing Hill working at “breakneck speed” in the blistering heat has been widely shared on X.
The mosque in the seaside town had been hit by bricks and other items by the rioters, who Merseyside Police believe were “supporters of the English Defence League”. This violence has impounded the grief and pain felt by the community, still reeling from the knife attack on Monday that left three young girls dead.
Despite this, Tony Hill and dozens of volunteers from the local area came together the following day to clean up and repair the destruction in Southport.
The bricklayer joined his colleagues in their efforts to rebuild the mosque wall, worried that protesters might return to cause further damage to the religious building. “We just really want to get this up so that the community is safe,” he added.
Hill is unfazed by the prospect that further demonstrations will undo his hard work; he stressed that “if we have to build it again afterwards, we will do just that.”
The havoc wrecked by far-right protesters in Southport stretched beyond the mosque wall. Numerous Shops were “broken into and looted”, said Merseyside Police, whose own police vehicles were damaged and set on fire as eight officers suffered serious injuries. The force promised that “those responsible” for the mayhem “will be brought to justice”.
To those who caused the chaos in Southport, Hill said: “get your facts first before you start doing stuff.” He went on to warn that “Facebook is a dangerous thing if you just want an agenda.” The gathering of rioters in Southport had been triggered by an avalanche of misinformation on social media, in particular after a website falsely claimed that the killer of the young girls was a migrant on the MI6 watchlist.
The knifeman, a 17-year-old male born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, appeared in a youth court on Thursday charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
Reaction has poured in for Hill’s selfless efforts. The Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti called him a “legend”. The director of Islamic Relief UK, Tufail Hussain, agreed with that description, saying that “Tony Hill and all that have turned up today to support the local community in Southport are absolute legends.” Another X user remarked that “we should all be a bit more Tony Hill.”
The Muslim community in Southport has also expressed their gratitude for the work of volunteers to rebuild their mosque. The chairman of the Mosque in Southport Ibrahim Hussein said he had been moved to tears by the kindness of the local community.