Category Archives: English Defence League

Roberta Moore says journalists like Andrew Gilligan ‘deserve our respect’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew-GilliganWe’ve been a bit remiss in not covering recent developments in the English Defence League.

Just to bring you up to speed, if you haven’t been following this, the EDL leadership have broken links with their millionaire financial backer Alan Lake following an Observer exposé of Lake that quoted his notorious article proposing the future execution of pro-Islamic “appeasers” like David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Jewish division of the EDL have since come out in support of Lake – and of the EDL’s Combined Ex-Forces (CxF) group who have also been expelled following an attack on a Plymouth kebab shop.

While scrolling through the discussion forum on Lake’s 4 Freedoms website in search of further information on these splits, one thing that caught my eye was an exchange earlier this week between a Paul Collings and one “Morrigan Emaleth” – a pseudonym used by former EDL Jewish division leader Roberta Moore.

Objecting to the way journalists have been pursuing Lake, Collingswrites: “when you think of the news storys they could report on, like the erosion of our freedoms, the deaths of child suicide bombers, the creation of muslim enclaves around europe. These are things they should, but are to scared to report on, so they instead chase their own tails. The media gives us with nothing but half truths and lies to read. All we,re left with is a choise of which lie to believe. Its hard to call them journalists.”

To which Emaleth/Moore replies: “Paul, There must be a very sinister reason why they are not reporting this. On the other hand I take my hat off to Andrew Gilligham and co. They report it. They deserve our respect.”

In view of the considerable assistance given by Andrew Gilligan to the cause of furthering far-right anti-Muslim hatred, you might have thought Moore would at least make the effort to spell his name correctly. It’s also a bit unfair not to mention the other journalists who are worthy of the “respect” of this vile Islamophobic bigot and her co-thinkers. Surely Martin Bright deserves a name-check too?

EDL march will go ahead in Telford, with restrictions

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Strict conditions are set to be imposed by police on a proposed march by the English Defence League which is to take place in Wellington Town Centre on Saturday, 13 August.

The march will take place between 1pm and 3pm and follow a police designated route from Church Street, turning right into Market Street, right into Bridge Road, right again into Queen Street and returning to Church Street.

In a move aimed at minimising the impact of the demonstration on traders and the wider community the police are using powers under the 1986 Public Order Act which will stipulate when and where EDL supporters may gather and the route their march must take.

Shropshire Live, 4 August 2011

Telford & Wrekin Council statement on the march

Telford & Wrekin Council say they disappointed that the EDL march will be going ahead.

Cllr Shaun Davies, cabinet member for Community Cohesion, said: “The overwhelming voice from the community in Telford, and in particular in Wellington, is that people do not want this march in our town.

“The Council would not want the march to go ahead but we understand and appreciate the very difficult position that the Police are in.

“The law and free speech allows for demonstrations and only under very clear criteria can these be stopped. The police have told us that these criteria have not been met and therefore the march goes ahead.

“The Police have the experience, resources and expertise in handling such matters and we continue to work very closely with them to minimise any disruption this march may cause and most importantly protect the safety of the community.

“While Telford is united against this unwelcome march, it is very important the Council, the community and all our partners continue to get behind the police and to make sure it has as little impact as possible on people and daily life in the borough.”

The EDL are complaining that the police will be restricting their march under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act. However, given that EDL protests regularly result in serious public disorder, there is no obvious reason why the police could not have applied for a total ban on the march under Section 13.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s speech to United East End public meeting July 29th 2011

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayor_Rahman_signs_book_of_condolences_at_Norwegian_Embassy
Mayor Rahman signs book of condolences at Norwegian Embassy

This is the speech given by Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, at the United East End rally on 29 July.

Good evening and Assalamu Alaikum.

Thank you all for attending this wonderful display of community unity in Tower Hamlets. I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds this week in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway.

I know that your hearts will have been moved, like mine has, by the grief of the Norwegian people.

So earlier today, I was both proud and saddened to go as your Mayor to Norwegian Embassy. I went with a delegation of faith and community leaders from our borough, to offer condolences and solidarity to all the people of Norway from all the people of Tower Hamlets.

And I came away from that visit more committed and determined to a very simple message from my administration – there is no place for hate in Tower Hamlets.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of sexual identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of racial identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of religious identity.

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are not going to let the preachers of hate and extremism, whatever community they come from, divide us.

And we certainly have no intention of the letting the EDL divide us!

Because when the man responsible for the mass slaughter of dozens of Norwegian teenagers boasts about his strong links with EDL leaders;

when he brags about his 600 EDL friends on Facebook;

when he tells the EDL to ‘keep up the good work’;

we all know only too well what the EDL’s idea of ‘good work’ is.

Their idea of ‘good work’ is when they sow the seeds of hate and intolerance.

And the sole purpose of their visit to Tower Hamlets on September 3 is to promote the politics of hatred and division on our streets.

That’s why one of the messages that must go from this meeting is to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, and that message is this:

We don’t want the EDL in our borough;

The people of Tower Hamlets don’t want the EDL in our borough;

And you, Home Secretary, have to the power to stop the EDL from coming into our borough on September 3.

But if the EDL do march, we know full well what their intentions are.

The Norwegian killer Anders Breivik praised them for it; they want to try ‘lure’ the local community, and especially Muslim communities, into street violence.

They want images on our TV screens of Muslim and white youth fighting on our streets.

They want to use these images as evidence of our communities at war with each other so they can claim multicultural Britain does not work

We know the EDL want to set us a trap.

Well, my message to them is this; we are not going to fall into your trap!

Between now and September 3 Tower Hamlets is not going to be a divided borough – it is going to be a united borough.

And on September 3 we are going to have a massive, united and peaceful celebration of multiculturalism and anti-racism.

We are going to have inter-faith groups, LBGT groups, youth groups, pensioners groups, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Atheists; members of all political parties and members of no political parties; all standing together to send one message:

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are a United Tower Hamlets.

And we are not going to let the EDL or any other bunch of extremists divide us.

Muslim police officers targeted by EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s National Association of Muslim Police (Namp) will deliver a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, stating that its officers have been targeted by radicalised members of the EDL. It details an unresolved investigation of an unidentified man arrested last year with “quantities of fireworks/devices” alongside names of Muslim police officers circled on whiteboards for attacks.

The letter also outlines concerns that EDL leader Stephen Lennon suggested similar events to those witnessed in Norway could be “years away” if his organisation’s concerns were not addressed.

Independent on Sunday, 31 July 2011

Who inspires the Anders Breiviks and their hatred of Muslims?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nick Cohen 3Nick Cohen has a piece in today’s Observer in which he points out that, while Anders Breivik was an admirer of the English Defence League, the Norwegian killer “did not only listen to British far rightists screaming out their hatreds in the madhouses of the blogosphere, but peppered his manifesto with citations of articles in the Daily Telegraph and other respectable conservative newspapers”.

Strictly speaking, most of the references to Telegraph reports in Breivik’s 2083 manifesto are by Fjordman and other “counter-jihadist” bloggers whose articles Breivik reproduces in his document. I can identify only two reports from the Telegraph cited by Breivik himself (this and this). His thinking was in fact influenced much more by the Mail, whose articles he cites on numerous occasions throughout his manifesto (the links can be found here).

But the point Cohen is making is basically correct – the mainstream right-wing press in the UK does provide both an inspiration and a cover of legitimacy for the anti-migrant, anti-Muslim ravings of the far right, including murderous fringe elements like Breivik. He is also correct in pointing out that the liberal media contribute to this Islamophobic narrative by giving disproportionate coverage to tiny extremist groups like Muslims Against Crusades

What is missing from Cohen’s analysis, however, is an assessment of his own role in all this. Because the truth is that his journalism has itself played a not inconsiderable part in stoking the baseless but widespread fears of an Islamic takeover of the west that motivated Breivik’s killing spree.

Admittedly, this has been a relatively recent development in Cohen’s journalistic career. Up until the Iraq war, which he enthusiastically supported, Cohen hadn’t shown the slightest interest in anything remotely connected with Islam or Islamism. But the role played by the Muslim Association of Britain in organising the mass opposition movement to that war suddenly awoke Cohen to the realisation that political Islam not only poses an existential threat to western civilisation but is also assisted by those non-Muslims who refuse to accept Cohen’s paranoid delusions on that score.

So, according to Cohen, a large part of liberal opinion has capitulated to “a movement of contemporary imperialism – Islamism” which “wants an empire from the Philippines to Gibraltar – and which is tyrannical, homophobic, misogynist, racist and homicidal to boot”. And it’s not just liberals who are aiding the Islamists in their plot to take over the world. Cohen has denounced “appeasers in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who sponsored Islamists working to create a sexist, racist, homophobic and totalitarian empire”. Anders Breivik would undoubtedly endorse every word of this.

Now, Cohen would argue that his denunciations are directed against Islamism rather than Islam. But the Islamists he condemns include Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose Al Jazeera broadcasts attract an audience of tens of millions and who is widely regarded as a leading reformist influence within Islam. In Cohen’s world-view even Tariq Ramadan represents a threat – when Ramadan received a friendly reception on his speaking tour of the US last year, Cohen wrote that it “showed that today a type of fellow-travelling with radical Islam has spread from Europe to America”. And in the UK itself, Cohen would have us believe, such mainstream organisations and institutions as the Muslim Council of Britain and the East London Mosque are headed by those evil Islamists who are bent on world conquest.

This is where Cohen’s distinction between Islamism and Islam breaks down. For, if a major figure like Qaradawi is, as Cohen claims, a barbarian intent on killing homosexuals and genitally mutilating young girls, if a liberal Muslim intellectual like Ramadan embodies the threat from “radical Islam”, if the MCB and the East London Mosque are led by dangerous extremists whose objective is to establish an Islamic empire – then you can only conclude that the Muslim communities in which these individuals and organisations are rooted must surely be suspect too.

This is certainly the conclusion drawn by Breivik’s former friends in the English Defence League. It is the long campaign of demonisation waged against the East London Mosque by mainstream journalists like Cohen, along with his co-thinkers Andrew Gilligan and Martin Bright, that has inspired the EDL to mount an intimidatory demonstration in Tower Hamlets on 3 September. If the ELM is indeed a nest of “Islamic fundamentalists”, the EDL reasons, then the tens of thousands of local Muslims who support it must represent no less of a threat.

If a British Breivik emerges from the “counter-jihad” movement in the UK and commits similar atrocities here, it won’t just be the right-wing press that is to blame for stoking hysteria about “Islamisation” and its “appeasers”. Liberal journalists like Nick Cohen will have to take their share of the responsibility too.

EDL thugs hurled racist abuse, attacked Plymouth kebab shop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Istanbul Kebab Shop PlymouthA terrified Kurdish family were forced to barricade themselves inside a kebab shop as a mob allegedly shouted racist abuse outside.

One person threw a glass into the Istanbul Kebab shop in Exeter Street as violence spread from a nearby pub yesterday afternoon. The family said the glass, which smashed on a counter, could have hit a baby in a car seat in the shop.

Four or five members of the family say they had to push against their shop door to stop a similar number of people, including women, forcing their way in. One woman family member, who did not want to be identified, said: “I was extremely frightened. They grabbed my mother’s arm and tried to pull her out of the door.”

The family said the group, thought to have been in the nearby Wild Coyote pub, were shouting “EDL, EDL” and vile racist abuse. The far-right English Defence League (EDL) set off from the same pub for a march through the city centre three weeks ago.

Continue reading →

Suspended prison sentence for EDL supporter who spray-painted graffiti at mosque site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Hucknall man who spray-painted racist graffiti at a site earmarked for a Muslim mosque has avoided being sent straight to prison.

Christopher Payne (25), of Beardsmore Grove, was with a gang who also placed a severed pig’s head on a pole at the spot. He admitted daubing the slogan “No Mosque Here, EDL Notts” on the pavement at the site near Collington Way, off Derby Road, West Bridgford. EDL is a reference to the English Defence League, of which Payne was a member. The vandalism and head were discovered by a member of the public on Thursday June 23.

Payne appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court for sentencing after admitted racially-aggravated public order offences. He also confessed to causing racially or religiously-aggravated harassment, alarm or distress and racially or religiously-aggravated criminal damage.

At the time of a previous court hearing in June, Payne had been an events organiser for the EDL. But at the sentencing hearing, the court heard he had since left the group.

Payne was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for a year. He was also told to pay a £250 fine and £85 costs and complete 100 hours of community service. He was also banned from West Bridgford for 12 months.

Hucknall Dispatch, 30 July 2011

East End declares unity against the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UEE logoHundreds of protesters stood in silence at a rally in East London last night with raised flowers to remember the 76 people killed in the Norway massacre by the self-confessed bomber Anders Behring.

The rally, calling for the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march by the English Defence League through Whitechapel, came at the end of a day when a delegation led by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the new Bishop of Stepney met the Norwegian ambassador and signed the Book of Condolence.

“I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway,” Mayor Lutfur Rahman told the 300-strong rally. “I know your heart will have been moved by the grieving of the Norwegian people. So I was proud and saddened to go to the Norwegian embassy with faith and community leaders to offer condolences and solidarity from the people of Tower Hamlets.”

He has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.

Norwegian trade unionists flew to London from Oslo to speak at the rally staged at London Muslim Centre along the Whitechapel Road – where the EDL plan to march on September 3.

The Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, in his first public engagement since his inauguration last Friday – ironically on the day of the Oslo massacre – was cheered when he told the rally: “I’ve already been criticised for standing shoulder to shoulder against fascism. But I stand with the people of the East End – this is no place for hate.”

East End Advertiser, 30 July 2011

See also Robert Lambert, “Londoners United Against the EDL”, Huffington Post, 30 July 2011

Update:  See “Hundreds pack East End rally in run-up to 3 Sept demo against EDL”, UAF news report, 30 June 2011

UEE rally July 2011

Telford council leader wants EDL march banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kuldip SahotaThe Muslim community in Telford must be listened to and a controversial march by the far-right English Defence League banned, the leader of Telford & Wrekin Council said today.

Councillor Kuldip Sahota has come out fighting against a plan by the EDL to march in Wellington next month and said residents’ security was now a top priority.

The group plans to demonstrate on August 13, the same day as the opening fixture of AFC Telford United’s Blue Square Bet Premier bid against Luton.

Councillor Sahota told a full council meeting last night a working group had already been set up in a bid to scupper any plans by the EDL to cause trouble.

He said: “The security of everyone in Telford and Wrekin is of great importance to us all. It’s very important we listen to our Muslim community and what they are saying. They are going to be directly affected. The council does not want the English Defence League in Telford and wants the march banned.”

Shropshire Star, 29 July 2011

Update: See also the follow-up report in the Shropshire Star which quotes chief inspector Keith Gee of West Mercia Police as saying:

“I would ask people to remember that although there is legislation in place that could potentially ban a march we simply cannot stop EDL members from coming to Wellington to hold a peaceful protest that day. Everyone has the right to protest peacefully and therefore it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare for a large scale protest, involving anywhere between 500 and 2,000 people, and ensure we have resources and plans in place to cover every likely eventuality.”

There is indeed legislation in place, under Section 13 of the Public Order Act, to ban the EDL march. It is necessary for the police to apply to the local council for a banning order, which must then be confirmed by the Home Secretary. The police should be urged to do so.

It is true that the EDL cannot be prevented from holding a static protest, but Section 14 of the Public Order Act gives the police considerable powers over the conditions under which the protest can be held. These include the power to determine the location of the protest. In Dewsbury in June the police refused to allow the EDL to demonstrate outside Dewsbury Town Hall and penned them in a station car park well away from the town centre. It is entirely within the powers of the police to do that in Telford.

Lutfur Rahman joins calls to Home Secretary to ban EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets has tonight formally called on the Home Secretary to ban a proposed march through London’s East End by the English Defence League.

Lutfur Rahman has written to Theresa May urging police to use their powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel on September 3, adding yet more weight to calls for a ban from MPs, councillors, London Assembly figures and church leaders.

“The EDL has a history of provocative marches in areas with large Muslim populations,” he said in a Town Hall statement. “They relish the opportunity to reap division on one of the most diverse communities in Britain and turning residents against one another.”

Mr Rahman claimed efforts to keep the EDL out “have not been helped by a handful of politicians and bloggers stoking the flames, seeking to paint Tower Hamlets as an ‘Islamic republic’ and its mayor as a ‘fundamentalist sympathiser’.”

He is speaking at a rally tomorrow evening at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, calling for the EDL march to be stopped.

The mayor is joined on the platform by politicians of all parties and church leaders including the new Bishop of Stepney in his first public role since his inauguration last Friday. Anti-fascist campaigners from Norway are also flying to London to speak at the rally.

East End Advertiser, 28 July 2011

Update:  See also “EDL’s online links with Norway killer fuel calls to ban London march”, Guardian, 29 July 2011