Category Archives: English Defence League

EDL hooligan who abused Muslims is convicted of racially aggravated harassment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel OdlingA Gainsborough man charged with racially aggravated behaviour was found guilty following a two-day trial.

Daniel Odling denied committing racially aggravated harassment against a group of Muslims in Lincoln in July last year where an off-duty police officer was assaulted.

The 26-year-old father from High Street, Blyton near Gainsborough, was on trial with a 17-year-old man from Market Rasen who cannot be named for legal reasons. Both were accused of religiously aggravated behaviour at the Grandstand on Carholme Road, Lincoln, where 30 to 40 Muslims gathered to discuss the building of a mosque, on the evening of 9th July 2010.

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Far-right anti-Islam protestors in Lyon outnumbered by counter-demonstrators

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAFP reports that nearly 500 far-right activists gathered in Lyon today to protest against halal meat and the “Islamisation of France”.

The Bloc Identitaire had originally intended to hold a “March of the Pigs” through the city but after that had been banned they had to settle for a static “rally for freedom” instead. Bloc Identitaire president Fabrice Robert told the protestors that “Islamisation is a reality in France” while the crowd chanted “Islam out of Europe”, threw smoke bombs and vandalised a kebab restaurant.

They were outnumbered by left-wing counter-demonstrators, variously estimated at between 800 and 2,500, who raised the slogan “Fascism is gangrene” and called for economic and social equality.

The English Defence League proudly announced that its representatives would be joining the “Marche des cochons”, in order to “support our French brothers in the defence of French culture”, evidently unaware that the march had been called off.

There were reportedly five EDL members at the demo. They told Lyon Info that they were there to defend democracy, freedom of expression and the French way of life, “without really knowing what it is”. They did know the British way of life, though, an EDL representative pointed out. And anyway “we’re all Christians”.

It appears that the British far right share another central feature of their culture with their French counterparts. Lyon Info reports that only 2-300 Bloc Identitaire activists actually made it to the rally. The rest were to be found in the neighbourhood bars.

Update:  The EDL states that two of its representatives have been arrested in Lyon, including EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Further update:  Le Progrès reports that 80 far-right activists were arrested after causing criminal damage and chanting Nazi slogans. Clearly the EDL were in good company.

One more update:  The EDL admins have now removed the thread on Lennon’s arrest from their Facebook page. That decision might not be unconnected with the posting of comments like this:

The entire thread has however been screengrabbed by Exposing racism and intolerance online. See here, here, here and here.

Three arrested after EDL target Darlington mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jamia Mosque DarlingtonTwo men and a youth were arrested earlier today after a “large scale disorder” in Darlington – believed to involve members of the far-right English Defence League.

Police attended the North Lodge Park area of the town at 4.20pm after a group of around 30 gathered near the Jamia Mosque. Superintendent Paul Unsworth said: “These people were acting in a rowdy, abusive and offensive manner and we believe their actions were racially motivated. Officers attended to ensure the crowd dispersed without causing further disruption or disorder.”

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The ‘Islamification’ of Tower Hamlets (part 427)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the principle that you can never have too many inaccurate scaremongering articles about Muslim extremists taking over the London borough of Tower Hamlets, the Daily Mail presents its readers with a re-run of the paranoid report it published less than a month ago. This one appears under the headline “Tower Hamlets Taliban: Death threats to women who don’t wear veils. Gays attacked in the streets. And all in a borough at the heart of Britain’s capital…”

But, to be fair, the Mail doesn’t suggest that the takeover by Muslim extremists is restricted to East London. It has another article, mainly about the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham, entitled “Censored! Bikini advert blacked out with spray paint by ‘Muslim extremists who object to women in swimsuits'”.

Needless to say, these irresponsible reports are seized on by the EDL:

EDL-Daily-Mail

Spiked indignant over ASBO for EDL thug

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOE/EDL Protest - 13.12.09
Joel Titus punching a photographer outside Harrow Central Mosque in December 2009

Over at Spiked, website of the ultra-leftists-turned-right-wing-libertarians formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, Patrick Hayes expresses indignation over the imposition of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the EDL’s former youth leader at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last week.

“Over the next three years,” Hayes complains, “19-year-old Joel Titus is forbidden from attending any demonstration that is connected with the English Defence League or being ‘part of a group of 10 or more people whose actions could cause alarm or distress’. His ASBO from Uxbridge Magistrates Court also claims he must not ‘display a sign or placard or use defamatory or insulting language which could cause alarm or distress’…. He is also forbidden from entering mosques, Islamic prayer rooms or a defined area of Whitechapel in London.”

According to Hayes this is a “shocking restriction on someone’s democratic rights”. He demands: “What did Titus do to deserve such a punishment? Absolutely nothing EDL-related.”

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Police try to maintain order as EDL thugs descend on Hammersmith

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL demonstrate in support of Yaxley Lennon
The massed ranks of the EDL demonstrate in support of ‘Tommy Robinson’

Police are trying to maintain order in and around Hammersmith after thugs from the English Defence League flooded to the area in support of a member who appeared at West London Magistrates Court in Talgarth Road earlier on Wednesday.

A police helicopter is circling, while several police vehicles are lined up in Talgarth Road, as well as near Barons Court. There have been reports of disorder in Margavine Cemetery near Barons Court Tube station and near the court. Police confirmed EDL supporters in their “tens” were in the area.

Hammersmith & Fulham Chronicle, 11 May 2011

The member appearing in court was EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”). According to reports on the EDL’s Facebook page, Lennon was found guilty of a Section 5 public order offence and fined £350 £315.

Update:  See also “Arrests at EDL founder Stephen Lennon’s court case”, BBC News, 11 May 2011

Further update:  Predictably, EDL supporters whipped themselves up into a state of racist hysteria over the report that “Tommy” had been fined more than £300 over his confrontation with Muslims Against Crusades during an EDL counter-protest on Armistice Day last year, whereas MAC supporter Emdadur Choudary received a mere £50 fine for burning a poppy.

Some examples here. You know the sort of thing to expect – “Englishman fined £315 for defending his culture – muslim fined £50 for degrading it”; “if your white and non Muslim you get treat differently that’s discrimination”; “wetha is 350 or 315 its still a fuckin diabolical joke when that mussy goat fucker only got 50 quid fine”; “1 rule for british 1 rule for the fuzzy faced pedophile loving scum”; “British courts r racist to Whites”; “tommy should of painted his face brown this morning wouldnt have spent half as long in a court room never mind a fine like he got”. And so on. Not to mention warm words of congratulation to Lennon for confronting MAC: “well done tommy 4 doing what any true patriot would of done … god i would of cut that cunts head off and his fuckin friends … islam is a big piece of shit fuck mecca and medina … nuke em”.

But it turns out that Lennon was in fact fined just £50, with £250 costs. In other words he received exactly the same fine as Choudary.

EDL trio accused of racist graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Three members of the English Defence League, including two from County Durham, have appeared in court charged with conspiring to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.

Anthony Smith, 24, of Easington, Peterlee, and Steven Vasey, 31, of High Pittington, along with Charlotte Davies, 19, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, are alleged to have plotted to daub graffiti on a mosque and buildings linked to a family business.

Each spoke only to answer their name during a short hearing before Peterlee Magistrates on Wednesday. Davies, wearing a pale crocheted top, giggled as the charge was read out. None entered a plea to the indictable only offence.

Chairman of the bench Gary Walker committed the case to Durham Crown Court, where the defendants are due to appear before a judge next Wednesday. They were released on unconditional bail.

A Durham Police spokesman said: “The charges relate to spray- painting incidents at the Nasir mosque in Hartlepool, the Albert Guest House in Shotton Colliery and the Milko store in Shotton Colliery, all on November 16 last year. At the time of the alleged offences, all three people claimed membership of the English Defence League.”

Press Association, 11 May 2011

EDL thugs target trade union and labour movement bookshop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of the English Defence League invaded Merseyside’s main trade union and labour movement bookshop on Saturday.

The EDL is an organisation of racist thugs with fascists in its midst. It primarily targets Muslims with its vicious racism. But it is increasingly turning its sights on other traditional fascist targets, such as trade unionists and socialists as well as ethnic minorities.

The News From Nowhere bookshop is a central part of the trade union and labour movement in Liverpool, selling tickets for antiracist events and coaches to anticuts protests, as well as books on everything from feminism and activism to the local area and children’s literature.

On Saturday 7 May, around 15 EDL supporters, arrived at the bookshop with flags. A group then came into the shop and attempted to intimidate staff – including making comments to female staff about pornography – before they were eventually moved on by police.

UAF news report, 9 May 2011

Joel Titus banned from attending EDL protests and loitering outside mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Joel Titus Harrow
Titus punching photographer Marc Vallée at a Stop Islamisation of Europe protest outside Harrow Central Mosque in December 2009 (Photo: Jonathan Warren)

An Eastcote teenager has been banned from attending protests by far-right group the English Defence League.

Joel Titus, 19, of North View, who has been violent at EDL protests, was slapped with an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Friday. The court heard about the teenager’s involvement in a string of incidents between 2009 and 2010, which police say were overwhelmingly related to EDL protests.

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