Elon Musk tussles with UK PM Keir Starmer over 'civil war' tweet
Elon Musk has been publicly tussling with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government after the X CEO predicted an "inevitable" civil war in the United Kingdom as violent protests have erupted in the country after a second-generation immigrant fatally stabbed three young British girls and attempted to kill 10 others.
"Civil war is inevitable," Musk tweeted Saturday in response to a comment from journalist Ashley St. Clair, who posted footage of the riots and wrote, "The effects of mass migration and open borders is what’s going on."
Violent clashes between largely white anti-immigration protesters and Muslim militia have engulfed towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland, prompting Starmer to threaten a clampdown on what he described as "far-right thuggery" both in the streets and online, according to The New York Times.
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The turmoil began after Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a second-generation Rwandan immigrant to the U.K., brutally stabbed and killed three British girls aged 6, 7, and 9 and wounded eight other children and two adults at a dance class in Southport, which is about 17 miles north of Liverpool on the western coast of England.
Rudakubana, who turns 18 on Wednesday, was born in Cardiff, Wales, though his actions have prompted debate regarding to what extent immigrants to the U.K. are assimilating to British culture.
Musk's assertion about civil war drew pushback from Starmer, whose spokesperson said, "There is no justification for comments like that."
The spokesperson attributed the violent protests to "organized illegal thuggery which has no place on our streets or online."
"We’re talking about a minority of thugs that do not speak for Britain, and in response to it we've seen some of the best of our communities coming out to clean up the mess and disruption," the spokesperson continued. "You can tell from that the prime minister doesn’t share those sentiments."
Heidi Alexander, the U.K.'s justice minister, also scolded Musk, claiming his rhetoric about civil war was "totally unjustified" and that someone with a platform of his size should "behave responsibly."
Musk doubled down on trolling the prime minister and the U.K. government amid the backlash.
In response to Starmer reporting that he would be dispatching "standing armies" to "ramp up criminal justice" and "apply criminal law online as well as offline," while ensuring there are no "attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities," Musk wrote: "Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on all communities?"
Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2024
Musk reiterated his assertion in another post, retweeting footage of "Muslim patrol" members surrounding and attacking a pub on Aug. 5 in Birmingham.
"Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?" Musk wrote. He also tweeted the hashtag "#TwoTierKeir," suggesting the prime minister was not upholding the law equally.
Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain? @Keir_Starmerhttps://t.co/gldyguysNe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
On Tuesday, Musk also posted a meme of a "Family Guy" character being sentenced to the electric chair, to which he added, "In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like."
Musk was making an apparent reference to a video that went viral on X in recent days that showed British police officers arresting an elderly man for making "offensive" Facebook posts in alleged violation of the Communications Act of 2003.
The fatal stabbing of the children was preceded by a separate targeted attack on a British Army officer who was stabbed 12 times by an unnamed masked 24-year-old man who fled the scene on a moped, The Telegraph reported.
British man arrested for making offensive comments on his Facebook page
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 5, 2024
Americans used to the First Amendment are often surprised about the number of arrests made in the UK for speech crimes
There will by many arrests after the recent riots as online tensions were very high
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Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
