{"id":625351,"date":"2026-06-07T03:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T03:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625351\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T03:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T03:02:53","slug":"dup-mla-condemns-spreading-of-misinformation-on-social-media-after-racially-motivated-arson-on-shankill-road-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625351\/","title":{"rendered":"DUP MLA condemns spreading of misinformation on social media after racially-motivated arson on Shankill Road \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A DUP<\/a> MLA has condemned the spreading of misinformation on social media following a racially motivated arson on the Shankill Road.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brian Kingston, who was speaking after a fire broke out at a former gospel hall early on Saturday morning, said those behind misinformation \u201cbear considerable responsibility for what has occurred\u201d. <\/p>\n

The fire service arrived at the scene of the fire just after 2.45am.<\/p>\n

Firefighters forced entry into the building, and a drone and jets were also used to tackle the blaze.<\/p>\n

\"Public<\/a>\"Cash,<\/a>\"TheThe DUP’s Brian Kingston <\/p>\n

On police arrival, the fire service confirmed that the fire had been caused by \u201cdeliberate ignition\u201d to the roof and the building had been \u201ctotally gutted\u201d by the blaze. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

The PSNI have begun carrying out enquiries with a police presence in the area on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A PSNI spokesperson said: \u201cThis out-of-use building had been bought by legitimate business people who would have brought jobs to the local community and, as with any crime motivated by hate, we will be providing them with an enhanced level of supervision, investigation and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Police Service, we do not underestimate the impact hate-related crimes have on victims, their families and wider communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we have a key role to play in tackling, preventing and supporting victims of hate incidents and hate crimes, this is a wider societal issue which cannot be resolved by policing alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to work closely with our statutory and voluntary partner agencies and the local community to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheDamage to the roof <\/p>\n

Mr Kingston described the attack as \u201cappalling\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an appalling crime, which the police are treating as arson, and as having a race hate motive,\u201d he told The Irish News.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly this Gospel Hall closed five years ago and no-one has taken it on since. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was purchased by Indian couple who had lived in London for many years and now live in Northern Ireland and they wish to turn it into a supermarket specialising in Indian foods, vegetables, rices and spices, but not meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThere has been misinformation deliberately spread on social media and stirring up opposition. Those behind that misinformation bear considerable responsibility for what has occurred. I urge anyone having information about this apparent arson attack to bring that forward to the PSNI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever concerns people have they should raise with the community or elected representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people working on the regeneration of the Shankill Road, to bring derelict buildings back into use and to maintain the ribbon shops along the road. To have a former church building and future shop burned totally undermines that work and is setting back progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI have been liaising today with the owner and with statutory agencies, the PSNI, Belfast City Council and the Housing Executive to have the building secured and I appeal for no further incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A DUP MLA has condemned the spreading of misinformation on social media following a racially motivated arson on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1104,59,57,58,50,25887,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-625351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-fire","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-shankill-road","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}