EDL won’t be returning to Bristol – organiser blames Saturday’s poor turnout on ‘death threats’

Leaders of the English Defence League have said they will not be making a return visit to Bristol.

Mickey Bayliss, South West organiser for the EDL, said the league was happy with Saturday’s demonstration, but was not planning a return visit to the city in the near future.

Mr Bayliss, 48, said he was disappointed with the numbers which turned out for the demonstration, saying more supporters were expected.

He claimed that members from the Bristol group, along with other supporters across the country, had received death threats ahead of the demonstration taking place which he believes limited the number of people at the rally.

Mr Bayliss said: “The main point is we came to Bristol and people have heard us and we have put our point across. We felt the day went well but we will not be coming back to Bristol in the near future.”

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Muslim MSP targeted by far right

A Muslim MSP has hit out at yobs who hurled racist abuse at him – and then reported HIM to cops.

Humza Yousaf was targeted by far-right activists as he joined some of Glasgow’s top officers on a police tour of the city. The Scots-born politician was told to “go back home” and branded an “Islamic fascist” at a demo by the British Nationalist Party and the Scottish Defence League. But incredibly it was Mr Yousaf who was reported to cops – for wearing a police jacket.

The SNP man said: “I was on a tour with officers, including the assistant chief constable, to see how the Orange parade is policed. In order for us to be recognisable to the police they issued us with high-visibility jackets. But when we came across the BNP and SDL things turned nasty. The aggressive reaction shows the level of hatred these fascists have for anyone who looks different.”

Strathclyde Police confirmed they had received a complaint accusing Mr Yousaf of impersonating a police officer. A spokeswoman added: “The demo was closed down under public order legislation.”

Scottish Sun, 15 July 2012

Two convicted over offences during Dewsbury EDL demo

Kevin SmithTwo men who were arrested during a demonstration in Dewsbury have appeared in court.

Police made five arrests when the English Defence League held a demonstration outside Dewsbury Town Hall on Saturday June 30.

On Wednesday, 20-year old Gary Wellings, of Dudley, was convicted of using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He was given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 costs at Kirklees Magistrates Court.

Magistrates also dealt with Kevin Smith, 53, of Brierley Hill in the West Midlands [pictured]. He must pay a £150 fine, £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after he admitted possessing mephedrone. A drug forfeiture and destruction order was also made.

One of the other men arrested was jailed last week for two offences. The two others were released on police bail. One was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and the other for possessing an offensive weapon.

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More fairytales from Geller about the EDL’s Bristol demonstration

EDL in Bristol (3)

Having confidently predicted that “thousands” would be marching with the English Defence League yesterday to protest against the “Islamification of Bristol“, Pamela Geller has failed to explain why only a few hundred people turned out for what was advertised as a national mobilisation by the EDL.

Shifting her ground, she has now decided to emphasise the supposedly respectable, non-violent character of the EDL, reporting that they were “well-behaved” and “maintained a calm and peaceful assembly” during their Bristol protest (in contrast to their anti-fascist opponents, who Geller claims “trashed the city and assaulted police”).

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Drunk EDL member head-butted UAF supporter at anti-racist music festival

Leicester anti-EDL protest

A supporter of the English Defence League head-butted one of the group’s opponents during an anti-racism music festival.

James Lee Elliott, 20, was drunk when he attacked a member of Leicester Unite Against Fascism during the festival last year. The assault took place during a free music festival called Love Music, Hate Racism in Leicester’s Market Corner in October, Leicester Magistrates’ Court heard.

Elliott, who the court heard is already subject to a three-year football banning order, approached an information stall run by Unite Against Fascism and tried to pull down one of the group’s posters. After three attempts, the court heard, he managed to pull the poster away and was challenged by a one of the people who were running the stall.

Prosecutor Cheryl Goes, told the hearing on Thursday that Elliott head-butted the man before he was restrained by onlookers and the police were called. When two police officers arrived to take him away, Elliott became abusive, calling the two constables a series of foul names. The officers said Elliott smelled of alcohol and was glassy-eyed.

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Arrests at EDL demonstration in Bristol

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

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’

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.

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English Defence League – not ‘waycist’?

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.

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Canberra: anti-mosque campaign uses video of speech by British Freedom leader

Members of Gungahlin’s evangelical community are distributing extremist material from overseas in their campaign against the construction of a mosque on The Valley Avenue.

A senior pastor at a Gungahlin evangelical church contacted The Canberra Times and supplied a video of far-right agitator Paul Weston, the chairman of the British Freedom Party. In the eight-minute video, Mr Weston says Islam was “worse than Nazism” and claimed Islamic influence in Britain would lead to civil war.

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