Category Archives: Far right racists

CRASBO for EDL member who attacked Islamic literature stall

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL attack Islamic literature stall in Hyde ParkAn English Defence League member who become involved with a clash with Muslims in Hyde Park has been banned from attending future marches without notifying police in advance.

Brian Bristow, 38, of no fixed address, was one of three men who admitted threatening behaviour towards a man running a stall providing Islamic literature near Speakers’ Corner, in October last year. The victim was verbally abused and had his possessions thrown around.

Earlier in the day, the men had attended an EDL rally outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, which ended in a confrontation between EDL members and anti-fascist campaigners in Hyde Park.

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EDL: not saluting but waving

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A blog called European Son has an interview with James Cohen, the recently-appointed head of the English Defence League’s Jewish Division.

The bit that made me laugh was where the interviewer points out “there have been many, many photographs of EDL members giving Nazi salutes”, to which Cohen replies that “a lot of those pictures are just guys hailing taxis, and waving at friends”.

EDL nazi salute
‘Taxi!’ EDL member hails cab

Academic study finds ‘striking gap’ between EDL’s official propaganda and violent racism of its members

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Containing Extremism Research Briefing has an interesting summary of an article by two academics from the University of Leicester published in the British Journal of Criminology. The study is based on interviews with three young men involved in the English Defence League. CERB reports:

Consistent with the main public image of the EDL, the involvement of these men as described here consists entirely of contributing to violent disorder. In one case, the interview material presented gives no indication of the sources of the gross and chilling racism which apparently drove his violence. In the other two, however, there is some narrative pointing to why they hate the ‘Paki’ and the ‘Muslim’, terms apparently used interchangeably. For one it is linked to feared violence, as represented by 7/7 and by an attack which this man had apparently been subject to. For the other, the hatred is of what is experienced as the invading and swamping ‘Other’, of those who have created a ‘Jalalabad’ where he lives. For both, taking part in EDL demonstrations and striking young Asian men brings some sense of pride and self-determination.

There is a striking gap between these states of mind and the reasonable tone of much EDL rhetoric on its website.

Stephen Lennon denies links to BNP, claims EDL kicks out racists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with Richard Edmonds
Lennon (left) listens to veteran fascist Richard Edmonds at a Luton BNP meeting in 2007

Claims in an academic report that the English Defence League has “sustained connections to the BNP” have been denied by the group’s leader, Stephen Lennon.

The report, by Dr Matthew Feldman and Dr Paul Jackson at Northampton University’s Radicalism & New Media Research Group, says that the EDL’s leaders and followers have “neo-Nazi methods” and connections to the BNP and other extreme-right groups. The academics also accuse the EDL of “engaging in doublespeak that powerfully questions their claim to be a single-issue, non-racist movement”.

But Stephen Lennon, who was last week convicted of assaulting a man at a rally in Blackburn in April, said he doubted the strength of the academics’ research. “All this academic research has been done on the internet and on Facebook,” he said. “They haven’t spent any time with the EDL, they haven’t come to any demos. If they want to get involved then fine.

“They haven’t got a clue at all. We’re not linked to the BNP. I was a member of the BNP for a year in 2004 but I left when I saw what it was all about. Yes we have members who are ex-BNP but they joined the BNP out of desperation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to say that there aren’t any racists in the EDL but we find out who they are and we kick them out.”

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EDL Angels are not sick?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Angels demoThis Saturday the English Defence League will be holding a demonstration in Downing Street to protest against David Cameron’s attack on the EDL in the House of Commons last month, when he observed that he had described some sections of society as sick and added that “there is none sicker than the EDL”.

In an evident attempt to soften the EDL’s public image as a mob of violent Nazi-saluting racists, Saturday’s protest has been organised by the women’s section, known as Angels, who have been collecting signatures for an online petition headed “EDL Angels are not sick” that they will be handing in at Downing Street. As we have pointed out previously, the flaw in using the EDL’s women members to front the campaign is that the Angels themselves have a well-established record of violence, racism and fascist sympathies.

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EDL members targeted Hartlepool mosque and Shotton Colliery store

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Steven Vasey and Anthony SmithTwo former English Defence League (EDL) members daubed “racially offensive” material on a mosque and two Asian-run businesses in revenge for the burning of poppies by an extreme Islamic group.

Steven James Vasey, 32, and 24-year-old Anthony Donald Smith were yesterday jailed for a year for their attack, which followed incidents at a war memorial in Luton on Armistice Day last November.

Days later, on the eve of the Muslim Eid festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the masked men, along with an accomplice, climbed a fence after dark at the Nasir Mosque, in Brougham Street, Hartlepool. The initials EDL and NEI – North-East Infidels – as well as the words “no surrender”, the cross of St George and figures of red poppies, were sprayed before two figures were seen fleeing the premises.

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‘Anti-Islamist political party’ to be launched this year, says EDL leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A supporter of the English Defence League gestures during a demonstration in LutonReuters has an article marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street which draws parallels with the threat from the far right today.

The article closes with a quote from EDL leader Stephen Lennon: “There will be an anti-Islamist political party forming this year. Britain’s primed for it.”

This confirms the Gates of Vienna report of discussions at the London “counterjihad” conference in September.