Nine men accused of rioting during a 2,000-strong English Defence League demonstration in Birmingham city centre have appeared in court.
They are accused of committing violent disorder at the demonstration in Centenary Square on July 20 last year.
Category Archives: Far right racists
Legoland cancels private Muslim event after receiving threats
Legoland in Windsor has cancelled a private event for a Muslim foundation after receiving threatening phone calls, emails and social media posts.
The Muslim Research and Development Foundation, a registered charity, had planned a family day at the Berkshire theme park on 9 March. Legoland said a “small group” had spread “deliberate misinformation” about the event to stop it going ahead. It decided to cancel the event after discussions with Thames Valley Police.
The force said it was investigating the offensive messages regarding the event. It has been reported that some of the messages had been sent by far-right supporters.
U.S. hate groups in decline as radical ideas go mainstream
The number of radical-right hate and militia-type “patriot” groups in the United States, which peaked in 2012 after four years of explosive growth, fell significantly last year due in part to the mainstreaming of right-wing ideas, a civil rights group said Tuesday.
The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, which tallied 939 active hate groups and 1,096 patriot groups in 2013, for a total of 2,035, which the organization said remained a relatively high number historically. It represented a 14 percent decline over the 2,367 groups counted in 2012.
The drop came as mainstream politicians began co-opting more right-wing ideas into state legislation which face constitutional challenges, Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center, said in a teleconference with reporters.
Nine in court over EDL riot in Birmingham city centre
Nine men accused of rioting during a 2000-strong English Defence League demonstration in Birmingham City centre last year have appeared in court.
The men are accused of violent disorder at the demonstration in Centenary Square on July 20 last year.
EDL anti-mosque protest in Grantham
The English Defence League held a demonstration in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham on Saturday, in opposition to plans to build a new Islamic centre there.
It drew an estimated 160 protestors, though the EDL itself, with predictable exaggeration, claimed that the turnout was between 200 and 250. Around 100 of the EDL’s opponents joined a counter-demonstration organised by Grantham Solidarity Network.
The Grantham Journal disgraced itself by publishing what was little more than EDL propaganda, with reports headed “Mixed race woman on EDL march in Grantham says group ‘are like family'” and “EDL say Grantham protest rally was ‘brilliant'”.
Twenty charged over violence at EDL rally
Twenty men are due to appear in court later this month accused of violent disorder during an English Defence League protest last year. The men were arrested as part of a nationwide operation to trace and identify people involved in the violence during the protest in Birmingham city centre on July 20 last year.
Around 2,000 protesters gathered on the day, with EDL supporters meeting in Centenary Square and those staging a counter demonstration meeting in Chamberlain Square. Arrests were made across the country following leads from an appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in January.
The 20 men will appear before magistrates in Birmingham next week charged with violent disorder, West Midlands Police said.
A total of 31 people have been identified from the images of 57 people released during last month’s appeal. Six men have been arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries. A team of detectives is working to trace the remaining suspects. Images of seven men suspected of involvement in disorder at the counter demonstration have also been released. One of those men has also been identified.
Tory MP says ‘EDL is not welcome’ in Grantham
The MP for Grantham has spoken out about the upcoming protests in Grantham which centre around a plan to build an Islamic community centre.
The Journal asked Nick Boles for his views on the double demonstration taking place on Saturday, one put on by the English Defence League (EDL) and the other by the Grantham Solidarity Network in opposition to EDL views.
Mr Boles said: “EDL is not welcome in Grantham and does not represent the views of the vast majority of local people. But the right to peaceful protest is an essential democratic freedom and I have total confidence that Lincolnshire Police will be able to maintain order on Saturday.
“I have no objection in principle to the establishment of an Islamic community centre in Grantham as our Muslim neighbours have the same rights as anyone else, but I have no views on the particular planning application.”
The Grantham Solidarity Network will set up in Avenue Road by Abbey Gardens at 1pm, while the EDL will set off on a march from the Blue Bull pub in Westgate to the green on St Peter’s Hill, where a static protest will take place. Police will be present.
Racist gang sentenced for ‘completely and utterly disgraceful’ attack on Cambridge restaurant days after Lee Rigby murder
A gang launched a “completely and utterly disgraceful” racist attack on staff at a Cambridge restaurant in the wake of the Lee Rigby murder.
The five friends – three of whom have been locked up – chased and assaulted staff, threw glass bottles and bins and hurled racial abuse outside the Mai Thai restaurant by Parker’s Piece as they chanted “EDL”. They goaded two brothers into coming outside before attacking them while shouting racist abuse on June 6 last year, a few days after the brutal murder of Fusilier Rigby in Woolwich.
The manager of the restaurant, who did not want to be named, told the News after the Cambridge Crown Court sentencing they attacked Muslim and Thai workers – and then turned on some of the 20 or so police officers who arrived on the scene.
Bristol EDL declares independence
Last month the English Defence League leadership – now a committee known as the Management Group, which is composed of the regional organisers – issued what was on the face of it a stern warning to EDL members against involvement with the various far-right splinter groups that have emerged from the movement over the past few years.
Accusing these rival groupuscules (quite accurately) of being “openly White Pride and racist”, the Management Group emphasised (albeit not very coherently) that “we will not stand with groups that do discriminate and are racist such as the Britain First/SEA/NWI/NEI/EVF/BNP/NF/C18 & White Pride or such like minded openly discriminating against any creed, race, colour other than white”.
EDL members were told: “If you wish to have unity with these groups then you have the option to leave the EDL as a supporter and join one or all of these groups. The splinter groups have minimal numbers and need unity with the EDL to make their numbers up not the other way. If you choose do so then we wish you good luck.”
However, for all their pious condemnation of racism and fascism, the Management Group was not actually proposing a general ban on EDL members participating in the protests organised by these splinter groups: “If any EDL supporter wishes to attend any of these other groups demos then all that we request is that you do not wear EDL colour’s or state you are in attendance as an EDL supporter.” In other words, the EDL leadership has no principled objection to its members’ active involvement with white supremacist, antisemitic and homophobic organisations – just as long as the EDL’s name is kept out of it.
Neverthless, as EDL News reported at the time, this provoked defections by a number of EDL divisions. One of them is in Bristol, where the leadership took badly to being given instructions by the national leadership. Leading local EDL activist Chelsea Anne White posted an indignant response to the new orders, complaining on the EDL Support Group’s Facebook page that “when i joined the EDL 3 years ago i was led to believe it was a street movement not a dictatorship”. According to White: “Good leadership dosen’t tell people what to do…..it is there to offer knowledge, assistance and support.”
Attackers of Plovdiv mosque fined for hooliganism
The first four people involved in a February 14 2014 mob attack on the historic Dzhumaya mosque in Plovdiv have been penalised under a fast-track procedure. Two were each fined 400 leva (about 200 euro), one was fined 300 leva and another was sentenced to two days’ detention.
A further four of the 120 arrested during the melee in Bulgaria’s second city on February 14 were to be penalised on February 17, local media said. By February 15, just 10 of the 120 initially arrested were still in custody, prosecutors said. Of those penalised, none was from Plovdiv. They were from Sofia, Varna, Vratsa and the town of Kozloduy. Police worked overtime at the weekend on preparing cases against those accused, according to the Interior Ministry.
The conduct of the police in Plovdiv during the incident, which saw not only the mosque targeted with paving stones, fireworks and bottles, but also the crowd of about 3000 march on the Turkish consulate and the city headquarters of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, has come in for criticism. Centre-right GERB opposition leader Boiko Borissov alleged on February 16 that police deliberately had been pulled back to allow the attack on the Dzhumaya mosque.