Serving soldiers have been warned that taking part in any English Defence League activities could result in their dismissal.
Defence minister Mark Francois, in a written Parliamentary answer, said that the Army chain of command had been contacted with clear instructions to ensure all service personnel refrained from engaging in any political behaviour, after photos emerged showing what appeared to be serving soldiers brandishing firearms against a backdrop of EDL propaganda.
A fifth teenager has been arrested by police investigating the suspected arson attack on an Islamic school in south-east London. About 128 pupils and staff were evacuated from Darul Uloom, a boarding school in Foxbury Avenue, Chislehurst, on Saturday.
Police said an 18-year-old man was arrested in Greenwich on Tuesday. He and the other four teenagers arrested on suspicion of arson are bailed to return to police in August. The investigation into the circumstances of the fire continues.
A man who attacked a mosque after the killing of soldier Lee Rigby has pleaded guilty to racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage.
Michael Manyweathers, 49, and three other men used a plank to smash windows at the Dorset Islamic Cultural Centre in Poole, on May 23.
For the Crown, Charles Nightingale told Bournemouth Magistrate’s Court that before attacking the Ashley Road mosque, the group had been drinking in a pub and working each other up over the murder in Woolwich the day before.
Police are investigating a graffiti attack on a mosque. The letters EDL – thought to refer to the English Defence League – were written or sprayed on a bin at Oadby Islamic Centre on Monday.
Police have urged anyone who saw someone behaving suspiciously near the Sandhurst Street building to come forward. Contact Leicestershire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers, which is anonymous, on 0800 555 111.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade told the leader of a violent nationalist hate group that targets British Muslims, “We got your back” and “it’s great what you’re doing.”
Kilmeade offered his endorsement to the English Defence League (EDL) and co-founder Tommy Robinson, who appeared as a guest on the June 10 edition of Kilmeade’s Fox News Radio program. Kilmeade’s support followed an interview in which Robinson railed against the immigration of Muslims into the United Kingdom, and warned of Muslims “forcefully putting us under Sharia” Law and planning a “silent takeover” to “implement Sharia” in his country and across the world.
A slice of bacon was posted through the letterbox of Maidenhead mosque in an attack believed to be part of an anti-Muslim backlash following horrific events in Woolwich.
Staff discovered the rasher, placed in an envelope, when they unlocked the mosque yesterday morning and believe it is the latest anti-Muslim protest sparked by the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in a suspected Islamist attack in South London last month.
Graffiti, stating “England till I die”, was also found spray-painted on tarmac near the mosque on Sunday and is believed to be aimed at Muslims.
It comes just over two weeks after stones were thrown through the window of the mosque’s fire exit – the day after incidents in Woolwich.
The fire that destroyed an Islamic community centre in Muswell Hill last week was the result of arson, police have confirmed.
Fire crews were called to the blaze at the the Bravanese Centre in Coppetts Road – which houses the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association – in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Officers investigating the scene discovered the letters “EDL” (the initials of the far-right anti-Islam group, the English Defence League) had been sprayed on the side of the centre. It is feared the fire was in retaliation for murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich last month.
Counter-terrorism police investigating the fire have been treating it “suspicious” but today Borough Commander Adrian Usher confirmed that the inferno was the result of an arson attack.
Fears of heightened community tensions following fires at two London faith buildings have triggered police to step up patrols around East End mosques.
Met chiefs announced a 24-hour surveillance around “at risk” sites last week. And marked police cars have been patrolling the area around the East London Mosque complex in Whitechapel Road, with the help of volunteers. The move follows last week’s fires at a community centre in Muswell Hill, north London, and an Islamic boarding school in Chislehurst, south east London.
Are feelings of mutual admiration blossoming between two headline-grabbing, anti-Muslim factions: one in England, one in Myanmar?
Wirathu, the soft-spoken but sharp-tongued face of Myanmar’s 969 movement, has told the Times of London that his organization aims to imitate the English Defence League or EDL, a movement that recently made headlines by launching angry street protests after two hardline Muslim men hacked a British soldier to death in a London street.
“People give me various names: the Burmese bin Laden, the bald neo-Nazi… we would like to be like the EDL. Not carrying out violence but protecting the public,” the well-known Buddhist monk told reporter Richard Lloyd Parry.
Socialist Worker reports.