Category Archives: English Defence League

Arrests at EDL demonstration in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in Bristol (2)
‘The biggest street movement in history’? The ever-shrinking EDL assembles in Bristol

A controversial English Defence League (EDL) demonstration and a major opposition rally have been praised for passing peacefully despite 11 arrests.

Up to 300 far right campaigners marched through Bristol in protest at what it claims is the “islamification” of the city. Avon and Somerset Police drafted in extra officers from as far afield as Yorkshire to swell the ranks of the riot control force to 1,000.

Isolated clashes took place between the police and EDL protesters as the rally wound down and supporters left the city.

Earlier, demonstrators walked through rain swept streets to Queen Square where EDL leaders made speeches to their supporters while at the same time up to 500 anti-EDL protesters with the We Are Bristol campaign marched in the city in an counter-demonstration.

Press Association, 14 July 2012

“Up to 300” demonstrators? Rather fewer than the “thousands” Pamela Geller was anticipating.

Update:  See UAF news report, 15 July 2012

Update 2:  See “Five men charged following EDL march and anti-EDL protests in Bristol”, Bristol Post, 16 July 2012 Protests in Bristol

More from the far-right Islamophobes’ meeting at the European Parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon at European Parliament

The International Civil Liberties Alliance and its supporters continue to post material from the ICLA meeting at the European Parliament earlier this week.

A video of EDL leader Stephen Lennon’s speech is now online. Not that it provides any fresh insights into the mindset of this whining, self-pitying little bigot, although it does underline the fact that he’s a lying toerag. Lennon got a round of applause for his claim that the EDL repudiates the neo-Nazis of the National Front (“Islamism and Nazism, opposite sides of the same coin to us”). You can only suppose his audience was unaware of the EDL’s joint demonstration with the NF in Newcastle last month during which they launched a violent attack on a peaceful anti-Jubilee party.

Assisting “Tommy” with the microphone in the above screenshot is Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who was convicted on a charge of anti-Muslim hate speech in Austria last year. Another participant was Lars Hedegaard, whose own conviction for inciting hatred against Muslims in Denmark was recently overturned on a technicality. Hedegaard was presented with the ICLA’s “Defender of Freedom Award” at the meeting in recognition of his role in stoking Islamophobia.

Another speaker, whose warning to the meeting on the dangers of sharia (“Freedom of religion, if it means that any form of religion can have its way, is a recipe for civil war”) is being enthusiasticallypromoted on the ICLA website, was Hans Jansen, a man who openly advocates the use of violence against Muslims. No doubt he and Lennon found they had a lot in common.

Lars Hedegaard reports that the room for the meeting was booked by the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang, which recently made the news when some of its members were accused of intimidating children during an anti-halal protest at a school barbecue.

It would be difficult to assemble a more poisonous collection of European Islamophobes.

EDL and NF

Police clamp down on counter demos in Bristol – Muslim community leaders meet with EDL ‘to create a pathway for future dialogue’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The police have today used their powers under the Public Order Act to prevent a counter demonstration to the presence of the right-wing and anti-Islamic EDL from going ahead in Bristol City Centre tomorrow (Saturday). Organisers of the rally, which had significant trade union backing, have been issued with legal notices enforcing restrictions on the counter demonstration, and have been told that they face potential prosecution if the rally goes ahead as planned. A statement from ‘We are Bristol’ reads,

Today’s Bristol Evening Post includes information from police statements about a change of venue for tomorrow’s (July 14th) counter demonstration against the EDL, moving the timing and location of the counter demonstration to Castle Park.

We Are Bristol wish to make clear that the police have imposed conditions on our demonstration backed by legal orders. This has placed the organisers of the counter demonstration under extreme duress, no agreement was reached with the police, and legal advice has been sought to defend our right to protest.

Continue reading →

English Defence League – not ‘waycist’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bristol & Somerset

Bristol24-7 has posted its promised interview with an English Defence League spokesperson, one “Terrence Witter”, responding to condemnation by three local Labour politicians of tomorrow’s EDL march in Bristol.

Witter accuses the Labour Party of organising “rent-a-mobs” to confront the EDL, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Labour politicians who condemned the EDL march couldn’t even bring themselves to back the peaceful non-confrontational “We Are Bristol” counter-demonstration. He states: “We encourage our supporters to not rise to the silly chants of ‘waycist’ from idiotic communist types.”

Meanwhile EDL News has posted a screenshot of a comment from the Facebook page of a Bristol EDL member rejoicing in the name of “Chris Rasher Bacon” which does rather undermine the claim that the EDL are non-racist. Not that this will bother the EDL’s regional organiser, Mickey Bayliss, who is not averse to the odd “Paki” joke himself. However, EDL News reports that Bayliss is apparently a bit worried about the turnout for tomorrow’s protest – numbers at EDL demonstrations have been in decline for some time now – and he has posted an appeal on the “EDL & BNP United we stand divided we will fall” Facebook page urging his fellow fascists to support tomorrow’s march.

Continue reading →

Bristol Labour politicians condemn EDL march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol’s two Labour MPs, and the party’s candidate for elected mayor, have issued a joint statement condemning Saturday’s march by the English Defence League (EDL) in the city.

Dawn Primarolo (Bristol South), Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) and Marvin Rees said yesterday there was “no place for the EDL in Bristol”, but urged those planning to protest against the group to co-operate with police.

Continue reading →

Youth who joined EDL attack on Redbridge Islamic Centre fails to get sentence reduced

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 15-year-old boy locked up after a racist mob attack on Redbridge Islamic Centre, has failed to convince judges he was too harshly punished.

The youth, who cannot be named because of he is age, was among a throng which massed outside the mosque in Eastern Avenue, Redbridge, in March last year, London’s Appeal Court heard, engaging in “racist chanting and seeking to damage a window and outside fence”.

Lord Justice Moses, who described the incident as “serious, racist mob violence”, added that a brick was also hurled at the mosque’s imam during the fracas.

Continue reading →

EDL raise funds inside the European Parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Far right members from organisations in Germany, Sweden and the UK attended a meeting in the European Parliament on 9 July at which literature was sold to attendees.

While one keynote speaker described how “The pansy left are auditioning to be the Muslim’s prison b*tch” and said the mainstream media represented “a threat to life and liberty.”

The same speaker stated: “A society which becomes more Muslim becomes less everything else.”

Continue reading →

Sikhs to join demonstration against EDL in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sikhs Against EDL (2)

‘Sikhs Against the EDL’ to join the counter demonstration against the EDL march in Bristol on Saturday 14th July

Sikhs from London, West Midlands and Cardiff will be marching against the English Defence League (EDL) in Bristol on Saturday 14th July under the banner of ‘Sikhs Against the EDL’.

They will be there to support the counter demonstration against the EDL march in Bristol on the same day. The counter demonstration is being organised by a multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-faith organisation known as ‘We Are Bristol’. It is a broad-based network of local community groups, political organisations and trade unions. Their aim is to ‘celebrate diversity and oppose racism and fascism’ and to show the EDL that they are not welcome in Bristol.

Continue reading →

Bristol council leader says EDL have right to march and refuses to join counter-demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Simon CookThe far right English Defence League has been given a clear message by city council leader Simon Cook [pictured] – “We don’t want you in Bristol.”

The EDL, which describes itself as an anti-Islamist group, is planning to press ahead on Saturday with its controversial march through the city.

Meanwhile, a group of trade unions, community groups and anti-racist organisations called We Are Bristol will stage a counter demonstration opposite the Bristol Hippodrome at the same time.

Labour councillor Mike Wollacott (Brislington East) wrote to Mr Cook, inviting him to attend the anti-EDL demo. But Mr Cook has turned down the invitation, saying he thought it would send out the wrong message.

Continue reading →