Around 200 members of the English Defence League came from across the country to demonstrate in Reading today (Saturday).

Members of the controversial group, which claims to oppose Muslim extremism, chanted and waved flags as they marched from the Three Guineas by Reading Station to Market Place, flanked by a heavy police presence.

They were greeted outside the Town Hall by around 50 demonstrators, who said the EDL were divisive, dangerous and not welcome in a multi-cultural, tolerant and united Reading. Edward Willis, 25, from Oxford Road, added: “We don’t tolerate or want them in our town, they are Nazis and fascists.”

Some EDL members said they were protesting against the building of the Oxford Road mosque and proposed east Reading mosque but others pointed to wider reasons, such as the building of mosques elsewhere in Britain, and called for more to be done to tackle Muslim extremism.

Among the EDL supporters was founder Tommy Robinson, from Luton, and a 38-year-old builder, from Oxford Road, who did not want to give his name but said he helped organise the protest. He described the Oxford Road mosque as an “absolute eyesore” and added: “We don’t want another one being built in east Reading.”

Reading Borough Council has released a statement condemning the “racist demonstration”. Council leader, Andrew Cumpsty, said: “We in Reading have excellent relations between our varied and vibrant communities. Hatred and division have no place in civilised political debate and I condemn the activities of this small minority. In Reading we celebrate all the varied parts of our town, as all together we are stronger and richer because of our diversity.”

Reading Chronicle, 19 March 2011

Update:  See also BBC News, 20 March 2011

For twenty-eight days members of the English Defence League are protesting outside a KFC. The protest is against the serving of Halal meat at the Blackburn store based on Haslingdon Road.

Things began with the predictable gusto on February 20. But trying to link the serving of halal food to “Islamification” was never going to be easy. In what way does halal food mean that a country was being Islamified? Why not also demonstrate against the serving of Kosher meat? Was halal food really impacting how people eat? And why only pick on KFC? Meat being served at other restaurants and takeaways across the region is halal. Should it really matter?

A specific reason given by the group is that it is inhumane to kill an animal the halal way. But these particular chickens are stunned before they are killed. KFC adheres to its strict laws and regulations as it did before the food became halal. Some would claim the slaughter of KFC chickens is done in a more humane way that the meat sold in your average supermarket!

Within days the Facebook page was asking for more demonstrators. By February 28 things had become a little desperate. A message read, “Tonight the turn out at the KFC was pathetic! All the so-called members of the Blackburn division and we have six stood up there! We need to sort this out!”

KFC meanwhile have handled the situation as diplomatically as possible. The company already came under fire from the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) for its use of stunning so to have a daily protest on its doorstep because you are too halal must be annoying to say the least.

Asian Image, 17 March 2011

Decolonize Queer has an important statement on the so-called East End Gay Pride march.

East End Gay Pride has been cancelled, the organisers have announced. In a statement this morning, they blamed “personal attacks” and a “personal vendetta” against them by local gay campaigners.

The march was due to be held on April 2nd as a response to anti-gay stickers plastered around London’s East End. But it quickly became controversial, as local groups Rainbow Hamlets and Out East accused the march of being a front of the English Defence League (EDL) and claimed that it would cause tensions between gay people and Muslims in the area.

Yesterday, one organiser, Raymond Berry, resigned after gay Muslim group Imaan revealed he had been a founding member of the EDL, a far-right group. Imaan said it was about to publish evidence to show that other organisers had “right wing and fascistic associations”, although organiser Mark Bourne said that they were simply “patriotic”.

This morning, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for the march to be postponed and said he was withdrawing his support for it. Pride London had supported the march but said yesterday it had been “misled” by Mr Berry, who had not declared his past support for the controversial group.

Pink News, 16 March 2011

One of the organisers of East London Gay Pride resigned today after it was revealed that he had been involved with the English Defence League. Raymond Berry helped found the far-right group and remains involved in groups including Stop the Islamification of Europe, it was claimed.

According to gay Muslim group Imaan, Mr Berry, a transport worker, fell out with officials at the Rail and Maritime Trades Union (RMT) last September over his political affiliations. Imaan said it had seen correspondence in which Mr Berry declared he had helped found the EDL but was no longer involved with the group because of a dispute over leadership. But Mr Berry allegedly said that he continued to hold firm beliefs against Sharia law and the “Islamification of Britain” and was involved in other anti-Muslim groups.

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