Category Archives: English Defence League

Race attack on train after EDL rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are appealing for information about a racist attack on a train. Officers say a man launched a torrent of racial abuse and attacked a passenger travelling alone from Halifax to Bradford. The assault happened on Saturday, April 16, and followed a march by the far-right group in Halifax town centre.

PC Alan Dean, the investigating officer from British Transport Police, said: “A group of men all boarded the 3.29pm Blackpool North to York service. During the journey, two of the group sat next to the victim – a 24-year-old who was travelling alone – and began to make racial comments. It is believed that one of the men then assaulted him, causing bruising and cuts to the victim’s face.”

Officers went to Bradford Interchange to meet the train and a 43-year-old man from Barnsley was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated assault. He has since been bailed until June 16 pending further police inquiries.

PC Dean said: “The behaviour of some of this group was outrageous and has no place on the railway – or in the wider community. Everyone has the right to travel without fear of abuse or threatening behaviour, and when that behaviour is further exacerbated by racist undertones, our stance becomes firmer still.

“British Transport Police and the wider rail industry will not tolerate any form of racism on the rail network and we will do everything in our power to take action against those responsible.”

If you have information about the attack contact British Transport Police on 0800 405040 quoting background reference B8/NEA of May 5, 2011 or call the independent charity CrimeStoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Halifax Courier, 7 May 2011

EDL has nothing to do with BNP, claims Guramit Singh

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with Richard Edmonds
EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (standing, left) at a BNP meeting in 2007

The English Defence League’s token Sikh, Guramit Singh, has written a long, rambling letter addressed to members and supporters of the Turban Campaign. It is Singh’s belated response to the statement issued last December by representatives of Britain’s Asian communities opposing the EDL and the British National Party.

Singh takes particular exception to the statement’s bracketing of the EDL with the BNP: “I’d like to state now, the English Defence League denounces the British National Party! … Its current leader was a member of the National Front and one of the founders, John Tyndall was a Neo Nazi. Why would the EDL want to be linked to the BNP? We don’t, but our opponents want us to be!”

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Another scaremongering Express headline falls flat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five arrested at nuclear plantThis was the banner headline in Wednesday’s Daily Express. The paper reported:

Anti-terror police were questioning five men last night amid fears of an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to attack the Sellafield nuclear plant. The suspects, in their 20s and believed to be of Bangladeshi origin, were caught filming at the highly sensitive site in Cumbria – 250 miles from their homes in London.

Armed police arrested the men on bank holiday Monday only hours after Osama Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan. The nuclear plant has been placed on high alert following Al Qaeda threats to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” in revenge for the terror chief’s death.

Last night police seized a small container of “suspicious material” at one of the suspects’ homes.

Predictably, the irresponsible media scaremongering produced this sort of response from EDL supporters, who take their line on Muslims and Islam directly from the tabloid press.

Yesterday BBC News reported that the arrested men had all been freed. ENGAGE asked the question: “what likelihood is there of proportional coverage by the media of the men being released without charge?”

The answer, of course, was none whatsoever. Buried at the bottom of page 7 in today’s issue of the Express we find a single paragraph which reads:

The five students who sparked an Al Qaeda terror alert near the Sellafield nuclear power station were there because of a satnav error. Rather than being terrorists avenging the death of Osama Bin Laden, the Bangladeshis from London were enjoying a picnic on Monday after putting CA20 in the satnav instead of CA12 for a hike on Scafell Pike, Cumbria, England’s highest peak. They were freed without charge.

Muslim police officer was assaulted as EDL gatecrashed mosque meeting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel_OdlingAn off-duty policeman was slapped in the face after asking non-Muslim gatecrashers to leave a private meeting about the Lincoln mosque, a court heard. Daniel Odling [pictured], 26, is on trial accused of religiously aggravated threatening behaviour, alongside a 17-year-old man charged with assaulting PC Rizwaan Chothia, again religiously motivated.

Lincoln Magistrates’ Court heard a group of six or seven men entered the Grandstand, in Carholme Road, where 30 to 40 Muslims were gathered on July 9 last year. The meeting was to discuss the next steps for a new place of worship after Lincoln Islamic Association’s application for a mosque in Boultham Park Road was rejected. The uninvited group turned up following publicity about the event.

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Police officers claim compensation for assault by EDL thugs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eight officers drafted in from a neighbouring force are claiming compensation from Staffordshire Police after being injured in an English Defence League protest.

They have lodged the insurance claims after being among 66 officers brought in from West Mercia Police to help control the Hanley march. It is believed two of the officers were knocked unconscious after the eight colleagues were attacked near McDonald’s in Parliament Row.

Staffordshire Police Federation chairman Andy Adams, who policed the protest, said: “The officers’ police van was surrounded and attacked. The officers were injured. They obviously feel very strongly about what happened.”

He added: “Lots of other officers got assaulted and pushed around and the crowd was stealing officers’ helmets and hats. There were lots of minor assaults that officers wouldn’t even contemplate claiming for, but what happened to the West Mercia officers could have been fatal.”

In total, 40 officers were injured in the protest staged in January, 2010.

The Sentinel, 4 May 2011

No show from English Defence League leadership at Weymouth demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL WeymouthThe English Defence League’s march through Weymouth yesterday in protest against the supposed “entrapment of the youth of Weymouth by extremist Muslims” turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Given that Muslims comprise 0.3% of the population of Weymouth, and the EDL would be hard pressed to find an adherent of mainstream Islam in the town never mind an “Islamic extremist”, perhaps the organisers should be thankful anyone turned up at all.

No doubt frustrated by the absence of a substantial Muslim community to intimidate, the EDL called off their street protest after only ten minutes and returned to the main business of the day – getting tanked up at Moby Dick’s pub.

The demonstration had been organised by one Tim Ablitt, who you may recall was arrested last year on suspicion of involvement in an alleged plot to bomb Bournemouth mosque. EDL co-leader Kevin Carroll was due to speak alongside Ablitt at the protest, but neither Carroll nor any other representative of the national leadership could be bothered to make the journey to Dorset.

Back at the pub, one participant announced his dissatisfaction: “Not happy no leadership showed. We travelled 262 miles to be here. Abt 200-250 EDL showed but where where [sic] leadership?”

Update:  See “EDL march in Weymouth: Hundreds show their feelings against ‘fascists'”, Dorset Echo, 2 May 2011

Weymouth: hundreds join protest against EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Weymouth anti-EDL placards

At the opposite end of the seafront hundreds of people gathered to oppose the EDL’s presence.

Crowds assembled at Weymouth Pavilion to hear members of the public, community leaders and political figures speak against the group. The organisers, Dan Brember, of Weymouth, and Richard Baker, of Dorchester, estimated that around 350 people were present.

Secretary of the Trades Union Council Tim Nicholls, who led the protest at the Pavilion, said the counter-group wanted to show that the EDL are “not welcome in Weymouth”. He said: “They are a racist organisation and where they have marched before they have left a wreck of racist attacks behind them.”

Mayor of Weymouth Paul Kimber, who introduced the 10 speakers, said he was pleased to see that people turned up “to show hatred” towards EDL.

One of the speakers, former South Dorset MP, Lord Knight, said: “We have a small Muslim community in the borough. These people are scared of fascism – they’re scared of what’s going on.”

Weymouth and Portland Labour councillor Simon Bowkett added that Weymouth has an Islamic population of just 0.3 per cent. He said: “It’s absurd that the EDL is here. We barely have a Muslim population, let alone an issue with radicalism.”

Weyman Bennett, from Unite Against Fascism, said it concerned him that EDL members had previously burned the Koran. He said: “When people start off burning books it’s not very far from when they start talking about burning people.”

Budmouth Technology College student Lorenzo Pagano, 17, added: “I think there always needs to be a presence where such evils arise. All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing.”

Jason Cridland, from Radipole, was one of the families to join in the march with his wife Debbie, brother Richard and three children including two-year-old Mollie. He said: “EDL feed off misinformation – they’ve become very dogmatic about something they want to believe in that doesn’t reflect reality. That’s primarily why we’re here today.”

Sean Gray, 61, from Fordington, added: “I think that racism is a cancer that we can do without in this area. I don’t think there’s a basis for these sort of organisations in Weymouth or in Dorset.”

Unite Against Fascism group will be holding a meeting on Saturday at 1.30pm in the Colliton Club in Dorchester.

Dorset Echo, 2 May 2011

See also UAF news report, 30 April 2011

Pics of anti-EDL protest here

No show from English Defence League leadership at Weymouth demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL WeymouthThe English Defence League’s march through Weymouth yesterday in protest against the supposed “entrapment of the youth of Weymouth by extremist Muslims” turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Given that Muslims comprise 0.3% of the population of Weymouth, and the EDL would be hard pressed to find an adherent of mainstream Islam in the town never mind an “Islamic extremist”, perhaps the organisers should be thankful anyone turned up at all.

No doubt frustrated by the absence of a substantial Muslim community to intimidate, the EDL called off their street protest after only ten minutes and returned to the main business of the day – getting tanked up at Moby Dick’s pub.

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