Police are seeking to ban marches in Islington because of fears a far-right group could target Finsbury Park Mosque, a leaked e-mail has revealed.
Scotland Yard is seeking to stop the English Defence League (EDL) staging a planned protest in Walthamstow in Waltham Forest on Saturday.
Officers have asked the home secretary, Theresa May, for a temporary order prohibiting marches across Waltham Forest and three other boroughs including Islington.
A group which opposed the building of a £500,000 mosque in Lincoln has now promised to work alongside the Islamic association.
The proposed, two-storey place of worship at the Old Boultham Dairy, could win full planning permission on November 7. If approved, the mosque could be up and running in about two years.
Boultham Residents’ Association started a petition against the plans last year. Members were concerned about the level of traffic the building would bring to the area.
A joint statement has now been issued by Jean Flannery, chairman of the residents’ association and Dr Tanweer Ahmed, trustee of the Islamic association which says they are happy to work together.
The leader of an extreme right-wing Jewish group has been condemned for claiming that a proposed Muslim community centre would lead to attacks on Jews.
Roberta Moore, head of the UK branch of the Jewish Defence League, wrote to Camden Council complaining about the proposed conversion of a shop in Cricklewood, north London.
Ms Moore, ex-head of the English Defence League’s Jewish Division, said turning the former shop into a Muslim community centre could lead to Jews being threatened and roads becoming “constantly crowded by Muslims preaching on the streets”.
The far-right English Defence League (EDL) and counter protesters say they will still demonstrate in Walthamstow this weekend despite police attempts to ban all marches.
Police had to be called in halfway through a planning committee meeting after far-right protesters became “abusive”.
Members of the English Defence League were at the meeting of Chelmsford Council’s planning committee and are said to have caused a disturbance. The incident happened shortly after councillors agreed to plans for a Waitrose supermarket, along with 39 apartments, to be built on Royal Mail’s sorting office site.
The “Sikhs Against the EDL” campaign have today announced that they will be supporting the counter protest against the EDL in Walthamstow on Saturday 27th October 2012. The counter protest is being organised by a multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-faith organisation known as “We Are Waltham Forest”, 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 Walthamstow. The UK’s largest anti-fascism organisation, “Unite Against Fascism”, is also calling for a national mobilisation to support the “We Are Waltham Forest” demonstration.
A ban on the far-right English Defence League (EDL) marching in Waltham Forest this weekend is set to be announced later today.
The Metropolitan Police is believed to have applied to the Home Office for the group to be barred from demonstrating in the borough on Saturday over concerns for public safety.
The Guardian, the council and community group We Are Waltham Forest have campaign against the EDL returning to Waltham Forest following a demonstration in September.
The group was blocked from marching to a rally near the town hall by thousands of residents and anti-fascist groups.
An event celebrating the borough’s diversity in Walthamstow Town Square will still go ahead on Saturday.
France 3 reports that on Sunday morning a family at Pont-du-Château in Auvergne in central France found the walls of their house covered in Nazi graffiti. Of Algerian origin, the family has lived in the area for fifteen years.
The French Muslim Council (CFCM) urged the government on Monday to ban a far-right group that occupied a mosque on Saturday and issued a “declaration of war” against what it called the Islamization of France.
CFCM President Mohammed Moussaoui said the Council also wanted better protection for mosques and Muslim cemeteries against racist attacks, which he said jumped sharply in 2011 and continued to rise this year.
The EDL members released on bail after being arrested on Saturday– apparently en route to the East London Mosque – didn’t include EDL leader Stephen Lennon, who has been remanded in prison on a charge of entering the United States illegally. This arises from his visit to New York last month to speak at the so-called International Freedom Defense Congress organised by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).
