A Muslim man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for throwing projectiles at far-right protesters who threw alcohol at him after the judge told him to “look past their simply disgusting racism”.

Amer Walid, 24, of Central Park Towers in Plymouth, was seen throwing cans back at far-right rioters four times in the southwestern city on Monday, August 5.

Far-right rioters tried to break up an anti-racist rally for several hours by throwing rockets and fireworks. The clash was one of several across the country in which racists attacked mosques and residential areas and falsely attributed the murder of three children in Stockport to a migrant.

Walid, who has no previous convictions, said he became angry when a bottle or can of alcohol was thrown at him because he does not drink alcohol.

The court heard he shouted “Allah Akbar” in response to racist insults shouted by far-right rioters.

In handing down the verdict, Judge Robert Linford said he accepted that Walid was not “looking for trouble” and that far-right rioters had thrown rockets and shouted “deeply offensive racist slogans”.

“They should have risen above their simply disgusting racism,” he said.

“You could have done that, but you didn’t. Instead, you fired four missiles of one type or another at the opposing group.”

Walid was convicted along with three right-wing extremist rioters.

John Cann, 51, was jailed for three years for firing a firework or flare at counter-protesters before falling off his walker. He told police he thought the protest was going to “erupt” because “an immigrant had killed some girls,” but said he was not a racist.

After his arrest, Cann, who has a long list of previous convictions, told police that immigrants cost the country too much. In passing sentence, Judge Linford spoke of the cost of his total 357 months in prison. “That, Mr. Cann, is what you have cost this country,” he said.

Ryan Bailey, 41, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for throwing rockets at the anti-fascist counter-demonstration and shouting “immigrants are not welcome here.”

Gary Harkness, 51, verbally abused officers and threatened violence. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

The government has stressed “strong police presence and swift law enforcement” to end the unrest. More than 1,000 people have been arrested for their involvement in unrest. Many have since been convicted, including children as young as 12.

This is a similar response to the riots in 2011 after Mark Duggan, an unarmed black man, was killed by police. Under Keir Starmer – then Attorney General – the justice system went into overdrive to end the unrest with sentences. One judge criticised the nightly court sessions as “chaos on stilts”, while MPs and justice campaigners said many of the sentences handed down to those “involved” in rioting were too harsh. Starmer said he believed the speed with which rioters were brought to justice was more important than the length of the sentences.

Following the recent racial riots, the government avoided mentioning the toxic anti-migrant rhetoric that had contributed to the unrest, which the Labour Party had also contributed to, and instead targeted far-right influencers and Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter.

And rather than changing the tone of the discussion on migration, the government will continue with the same approach. According to a BBC report, “The government is avoiding discussion of immigration, again for fear of creating the impression that the unrest is justified. But over time it will likely remind voters that the prime minister believes many people have legitimate concerns about migration, both legal and illegal.”

Simon Childs is an editor and reporter for Novara Media.