Next month’s East End Gay Pride should be cancelled because it will cause “community tension”, it has been claimed. Some local gay campaigners say the march, in east London, will cause tensions between gay people and Muslims.

The march, to be held on April 2nd, has been organised by six friends as a response to anti-gay stickers plastered around the East End. But opponents say it is an “emotional reaction” which “risks antagonising and scapegoating” Muslims.

They have also accused organisers of having “close links” to the English Defence League because some have Facebook friends who appear to be involved in the far-right group.

Although the parade has been backed by local police and Tower Hamlets council, some local campaigners are calling for it to be cancelled.

An open letter signed by Out East chair Thierry Schaffauser and Terry Stewart of the Hackney Community Engagement Board claims that the Pride march may “divide our communities” or be used “to oppress other marginalised groups”.

Out East organises Hackney Pride and the letter has also been signed by Denis Fernando of Unite Against Fascism and the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils.

It says: “We believe that the most appropriate response to the stickers is to liaise with Muslim communities and others to create bridges and communicate with each other.

“We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories.

“We will refuse any attempt to divide our communities or take the risk that an LGBTQ event is used to oppress other marginalised groups, in particular LGBTQ Muslims who will be the most affected by this rising antagonism.”

In response, the organisers of East End Gay Pride said in a statement: “This is wholly a non-political demonstration and purely a high visibility demonstration of the East End gay community. This is not an anti-Muslim march. This is not an anti-anything march. We have stated this over and over again, here and on our website. We simply want to say: ‘Hang on. You’re wrong. The East End is NOT a gay-free zone’.”

East End Pride has also received support from the organisers of Pride London. In an opinion for PinkNews.co.uk today, chair Paul Birrell wrote: “The organisers of the event should be applauded for this fun and timely reminder of the East End’s LGBT community, not showered with abuse for simply wanting to show, well, a bit of Pride.

“The idea that being out and proud is somehow an assault on someone else’s views is used time and again by hostile governments to ban Pride.

“That some within London’s own LGBT community should use this argument – in what looks suspiciously like a case of sour grapes at not having thought of the idea first – is a source of shame.”

Pink News, 14 March 2011

For some useful background from the Latte Labour blog on the organisers of “East End Gay Pride”, see here and here.

Up to 130 supporters of the anti-Muslim English Defence League (EDL) descended on Green Lane in Dagenham on Saturday. They came from as far as Southend and Kent to protest against a disused butchers being converted into a Muslim centre.

Under police supervision the EDL met at a local pub from 10am onwards before assembling at nearby Chadwell Heath train station at around 12.30 to lay flowers for one of their supporters who was killed by a train after a previous protest in the area.

The EDL then noisily marched to Green Lane only to find they were penned in behind metal barriers and not able to protest outside the butchers shop as they had intended. Behind the barriers the EDL chanted anti-Muslim slogans such as “Allah is a Paedo” and “Burn a poppy – burn a Mosque” as self-appointed EDL leader and co-founder Kevin Carrol threatened to “Bring the whole country to Dagenham” if the council did not reverse its decision on plans for the butchers shop.

In contrast, around 40 Unite Against Fascism supporters had been on Green Lane from early morning leafleting with a petition and talking to local people. One UAF campaigner told me – “Yes, there is some support for the anti-Muslim racism of the EDL, but the majority of those we have spoken to feel intimidated and disgusted by it. They don’t want their (EDL) race hate here, or that of the BNP.”

At the same time, from across the road, I could hear the EDL chanting “Scum, scum, scum” and pointing in the direction of the UAF campaigners. By the end of the respective protests the atmosphere was very tense with the local bus boarded by the UAF being boarded by the police and the EDL given a police escort back to Chadwell Heath train station.

Demotix, 12 March 2011

See also “Accused extremists face court over affray”, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 11 March 2011

Anti-fascists and Muslim communities joined forces on Saturday to fight anti-Islam mobs in Greater Manchester.

Members of the white supremacist English Defence League (EDL) gathered in Rochdale town centre over the weekend, accusing the local Muslim population of child sex abuse. Anti-fascist activists Unite Against Fascism and members of the Muslim community turned out to counter-demonstrate, with police erecting a fence between the groups. Local media estimated around 500 EDL supporters and 100 Unite Against Fascism members in attendance.

But Unite Against Fascism co-ordinator Weyman Bennett said he believed many EDL members had been bussed in from out of town. The sheer number of localised EDL demonstrations made it difficult to mobilise counterdemonstrators every weekend, he said. But the Rochdale event saw “a very good turnout,” with closer to 250 counterdemonstrators once Muslim groups and trade unions were included.

The EDL had planned to march on a local Islamic centre but the counterprotest and police kettling had prevented this, he said.

Morning Star, 7 March 2011

An English Defence League protest in Rochdale on Saturday led to 34 arrests, but the police were delighted it passed off without large-scale disorder.

Almost 500 supporters of the far-right group travelled to the north-west town for the event, while around 100 people gathered for a counter-demonstration organised by Unite Against Fascism.

Greater Manchester Police had a high-profile presence on the ground and, with the help of leaders from the local Asian community, managed to keep the peace.

A metal fence was erected between the EDL and UAF supporters who gathered close to the Cenotaph, and although there were some minor disturbances, there were few signs of the situation degenerating into violence.

Three people were detained for possession of an offensive weapon, but most of the arrests were for minor public order offences, for failing to remove face masks and for being drunk and disorderly.

EDL supporters had carried banners with slogans such as “Patriotism is not a crime” and “Protect all children from Islamists”. The Manchester Evening News reported that they had been addressed by a speaker who talked about allegations of sexual exploitation of children in Rochdale.

Anti-EDL demonstrators, who included representatives of local mosques and trade unions, carried placards reading ‘Smash the English Defence League’ and ‘EDL + BNP = Nazi-racist thugs’.

Metro, 5 March 2011

See also Unite Against Fascism news report, 5 March 2011