A video report of Saturday’s English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism demonstrations features Hel Gower, head of the EDL’s admin team and PA to the leadership.
Interviewed as she and her colleagues hand in their “EDL Angels are not sick” petition at Downing Street, Gower repeats the official line that the EDL’s women members are “wives, mothers, grandmothers, aunts”. This is no doubt true, but it doesn’t prevent the laughably misnamed “Angels” from also being racists and neo-Nazis.
The English Defence League has claimed that Queens Park Rangers footballer, Joey Barton, has joined their far-right group.
A picture of Barton standing next to EDL leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has appeared on the EDL Support Group Facebook page with the caption “Joey Barton joins the EDL”.
However, Barton and the club strongly deny any links with the far right extremists. In a statement released by the club, Barton said “As a Premier League footballer it is common to pose for photographs with people you do not know, as is the case here. I had no idea who the person was. I simply agreed to his request for a photograph. I have absolutely no connection with such a group.”
Last year, a similar picture of Yaxley-Lennon standing next to glamour model, Katie Price appeared on the EDL’s Facebook page along with the claim that she also supported the group. At the time, a spokesperson for Price’s management company said “She is not and will not be associated with the English Defence League. Kate had no reason to suspect he had any connection with any group.”
A huge range of speakers, including MPs, campaigners, writers and musicians is lined up for the one-day conference on defending multiculturalism on 15 October.
The event, titled Celebrate diversity, defend multiculturalism, oppose Islamophobia and racism, is organised by UAF and One Society Many Cultures and sponsored by SERTUC.
It is backed by the NUT, Unite, CWU, UCU and PCS trade unions, the Muslim Council of Britain and the NUS Black Students Campaign.
Speakers announced for the conference include Francis O’Grady TUC deputy general secretary, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary NUT, Jack Dromey MP, Helen Goodman MP, Peter Hain MP,Claude Moraes MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Farooq Murad secretary general, Muslim Council of Britain, Edie Friedman executive director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality, Michelle Stanistreet general secretary NUJ, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Steve Hart political director Unite, Megan Dobney regional secretary SERTUC, Zita Holbourne PCS NEC, Bob Lambert co-director European Muslim Research Centre, Jody McIntyre journalist, Peter Oborne journalist, Dilowar Khan director, London Muslim Centre, Alaa’ Samarrai vice-president student affairs, Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Kanja Sesay NUS black students’ officer, Nitin Sawney musician, Sabby Dhalu secretary One Society Many Cultures, Denis Fernando Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism, Weyman Bennett joint secretary UAF, Martin Smith national co-ordinator, Love Music Hate Racism.
>> Go here to download the conference flyer
>> Read more about the conference
The event takes place at the TUC conference centre, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS from 9.30am to 5pm on Saturday 15 October.
As you can imagine, this photograph from yesterday’s Angels’ Downing Street protest has been the cause of a certain amount of embarrassment for the English Defence League:
However, we shouldn’t get the idea that all EDL supporters are Nazi sympathisers, as the following exchange from the EDL’s Facebook page (via everythingedl) clearly demonstrates:
The English Defence League Angels’ London protest today must have been a major disappointment for them. As you can see from the photo (courtesy of Tom Griffin) barely a hundred EDL turned up and most of them were men. Considering that the event was a national mobilisation and had been publicised for weeks in advance, this was little short of a disaster for the EDL.
Socialist Worker reports that the Infidels’ demonstration in Leeds was even smaller, as this photo (via Expose) confirms.
All in all, not a good day for the Islamophobic far right.
Richard Dawkins claims Muslim schools are having a “pernicious” influence on children who are having their minds “stuffed with alien rubbish” such as claims the world is only 6,000 years old.
The author of The God Delusion, who has previously described religious education provided by faith schools as a form of child abuse, said that the effect was “utterly deplorable” especially as it lasted until their university years. The prominent atheist said he could live with some faith schools that are vaguely religious and saved his fire for the schools that were teaching “total nonsense”.
Mr Dawkins, former Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist, made his comments as he spoke to the Times Educational Supplement about the launch of a new science book.
He said that while he opposed faith schools as a whole, it was the Muslim ones that worried him the most. “Occasionally, my colleagues lecturing in universities lament having undergraduate students walk out of their classes when they talk about evolution – this is almost entirely Muslims,” he said. “So I think there’s a very, very pernicious influence that is lasting up to the university years. That must be coming from certain schools.”
He said that he noticed the “utterly deplorable” effect they were having first hand after visiting a Muslim school in Leicester as part of a documentary he made last year called Faith Schools Menace? “Every single person I met believes if there is any disagreement between the Koran and science, then the Koran wins,” he said. “I spoke to a group of girls, and to a senior science teacher who believes the world is 6,000 years old. It’s just utterly deplorable. These are now British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish.”
An 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.
Around 100 residents gathered to demonstrate their opposition to a mosque which they claim is operating illegally.
The Muslim worship centre has sparked controversy since opening without planning permission in a former take-away on Waterloo Road, South Shore. On Tuesday night Natasha Shah, co-owner of the mosque, faced a barrage of criticism from opponents to the scheme.
Protesters said their anger had “nothing to do with race or religion” but that they were concerned the development would trigger traffic and parking problems in that part of South Shore.
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”.
‘Taxi!’ EDL member hails cab
