A bricklayer who denies taking part in an attack on Kingston Mosque is “no angel” and lied to police during his interview, a court has heard.
Martin Pottle, 23, a former Orleans Park School pupil from Feltham told the court he originally lied to police as he was hungover and scared of being remanded in custody as he was on bail in connection with another offence.
The leader of a British anti-Islamist group said on Friday his populist protest movement, which critics say represents a new far right in Britain, would form a political party in May. Stephen Lennon, head of the English Defence League (EDL), said the three-year-old grassroots group wanted to move on from holding street demonstrations to contesting elections.
“The British political anti-Islamist party will be launched in May at our Luton demonstration,” Lennon told Reuters, saying the new body would be called the Freedom Party. At the Luton demonstration, the whole country will hear an anti-Islamist political party that gives everyone an option in a non-racist way – the opposite to the British National Party.”
Several thousand people turned out for an open-air concert in Denmark’s second city of Aarhus on Wednesday to protest against a far-right anti-Islam rally planned for March 31, officials said.
Aarhus city officials said they organised the concert as a way of showing the city’s tolerance and because “Aarhus does not want to be associated with extremist groups” that represent “everything we want to distance ourselves from.” Around 5,000 people attended Wednesday’s concert, a spokesman for the mayor’s office said.
Far-right groups from across Europe are scheduled to meet in Aarhus on March 31 for an anti-Islam rally organised by the Danish Defence League, a sister organisation of the English Defence League.
An Epsom builder has been grilled over why he bought bacon which was subsequently thrown at a mosque.
Builder David Morris, 22, is one of nine men accused of violent disorder, affray and racially-aggravated damage when a hooded mob attacked Kingston Mosque in November 2010. The incident took place after an English Defence League rally outside the mosque in East Road with a mob chanting English Defence League slogans as elderly worshippers cowered inside the building.
Taking the stand at Kingston Crown Court on Monday Mr Morris refused to answer a number of questions during his cross-examination. Leading Judge Georgina Kent had to warn him three times about the inferences the jury may take from his no comment responses.
Mr Morris told the court he picked up bacon from Tesco Metro “for a joke”. He said: “Obviously it was a march against Islamic extremism and they don’t eat bacon.” When he went back to the nearby King’s Tun pub other people threw the bacon around and he did not see it again, he told the court.
He was also asked about a photo on his mobile phone which showed co-defendant Alfie Wallace and another unidentified man in East Road holding sticks. Asked why he took it and what the men intended to do with the sticks he said: “I don’t know.”
Baroness Cox hosts Geert Wilders at the House of Lords in March 2010
Stoning, whipping and amputations could become common punishments in the UK if hardline Sharia law is allowed to thrive, a peer has warned.
Crossbencher Baroness Cox claimed a rise in the number of British Muslims using it instead of the official court system could even lead to the destruction of democracy.
She said Sharia law will become a way of life in parts of the UK, sparking support for the BNP, unless officials step in.
UK Muslims have been able to use Sharia for legal disputes since 1982.
The baroness said: “We do not at the moment have the most brutal punishments, but there are those who would like to bring them in.”
Police in Kirklees are appealing for information from the public after a series of incidents in Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Dewsbury that followed an English Defence League (EDL) demonstration on Saturday in Cleckheaton.
A man accused of taking part in an attack on Kingston Mosque denied making up lies to clear his name, a court has heard.
The prosecution claimed all nine men on trial at Kingston Crown Court could be identified on CCTV walking toward the mosque in a large group on November 21, 2010.
Martin Pottle, 23, of Hanworth, interrogated by police on January 6, 2011, was accused in his interview of making up a story about walking to Sainsbury’s with a friend, whose name he could not remember, so his friend could top-up his phone.
Jordan Ellingham, 21, of Feltham, said he went on the march to be “a bit patriotic”, heard people say “let’s go to the mosque” and was “intrigued” so went to East Road, the jury heard.
Mr Ellingham told police: “I didn’t know what was going on. A bit of shouting and then I think a few things being thrown by people.” He said: “I weren’t aggressive, weren’t violent.”
Kingston Guardian, 21 March 2012
As we have previously noted, both Pottle and Ellingham are associates of Joel Titus, the English Defence League’s former national youth organiser, as is another of the defendants, Paul Abley. Last year, following a series of violent incidents on EDL demonstrations, Titus was slapped with an ASBO banning him from attending any further EDL protests or loitering outside mosques.
This demonstration outside Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court tomorrow has been organised by the Yorkshire Division of the English Defence League in protest against Azhar Ahmed, the young man charged with a “racially aggravated public order offence” over a Facebook comment which, while arguably “threatening, abusive or insulting”, involved no actual racial element at all. (The EDL held a small demonstration against Ahmed in Dewsbury on Saturday which resulted in two of their members being arrested for causing criminal damage.)
Tory councillors have been branded “perverse” after rejecting plans for an Islamic Centre in Purley. The six voted against the proposal despite planning officers recommending the development be approved.
And questions have also been raised as to why committee chairman councillor David Osland allowed “Mosquebuster” Gavin Boby to address the chamber, despite knowing of his links to the far-right English Defence League.
Councillors further clashed at the meeting – policed by around eight Met officers – which ended in plans for an Islamic place of worship coupled with multi-faith community facilities defeated by an all-Conservative six votes to an all-Labour five.
Ken Livingstone has promised to turn London into a “beacon” for the words of the Prophet Mohammed in a sermon at one of the capital’s most controversial mosques.
Mr Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, pledged to “educate the mass of Londoners” in Islam, saying: “That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet.” Mr Livingstone described Mohammed’s words in his last sermon as “an agenda for all humanity.”
He praised the Prophet’s last sermon, telling his audience: “I want to spend the next four years making sure that every non-Muslim in London knows and understands [its] words and message.” He also promised to “make your life a bit easier financially.”
Mr Livingstone was speaking at last Friday’s Jummah prayer at the North London Central Mosque, also known as Finsbury Park Mosque, formerly controlled by the terrorist recruiter Abu Hamza.
Hamza was removed in 2003 but the mosque is now controlled by an Islamist organisation, the Muslim Association of Britain, which has been linked to the banned terror group, Hamas.