Category Archives: UK

March for England meets counter-protest in Brighton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brighton demonstration against MfE

The “patriotic” group March for England faced a counter-demonstration from local anti-fascists when they held their fourth St George’s Day march in Brighton yesterday. One report suggests that the march attracted 100 participants, mainly from outside the town. As the picture below shows, the MfE organisers’ assurances that the march was a non-political “family event” from which English Defence League supporters would be banned proved baseless. The familiar EDL chants of “English till I die” and “No surrender to the Taliban” were heard, and one counter-demonstrator concluded that “the ‘respectable’ veneer of March for England was well and truly stripped away. This was without question an EDL march”.

Update:  See “Nationalist march will return to Brighton”, Argus, 26 April 2011

Brighton MfE 2011

Photos by David Nash at Demotix.

St George’s Day open-air drink ban in Manchester due to fears of drunken violence by BNP and EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

People were banned from drinking outside some city centre pubs on Saturday – over fears of violence by far-right groups celebrating St George’s Day.

As part of a one-day police operation, pubs were told not to allow people to use outdoor seating in parts of the city centre where violence had broken out in previous years amongst BNP and EDL members. Pubs and bars in the Shambles area and on Deansgate told customers they were only allowed to drink indoors on St George’s Day.

But some customers said the action was unfair – as outdoor seating areas lay empty on a scorching spring afternoon.

A police spokesman said officers took the decision to ban outdoor drinking in the Shambles and Deansgate areas after alcohol related-violence occurred when supporters of far-right groups gathered there on St George’s Day in previous years.

He said: “Drinking outside in various areas was banned because members of the BNP and EDL had used them to congregate, leading to drink-fuelled violence. This was a one-day operation specifically for St George’s Day in one part of the city centre.”

Manchester Evening News, 25 April 2011

Threats and intimidation are ‘standard Tower Hamlets Islam’ says Alan Craig

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Letter from Alan Craig in the Sunday Times, 24 April 2011

Both the Tower Hamlets police borough commander and the Quilliam Foundation, the anti-extremist think tank, are wrong to minimise the threats to the Whitechapel pharmacy assistant as just the work of a “small minority” of “Talibanesque thugs” (“Tower Hamlets Taliban order women to cover up“, News, last week). The issue is much more serious than that.

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EDL thug may be allowed to take up place at University of Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An English Defence League thug jailed for his part in a soccer riot could still be allowed to take up a place at a Midland university.

A-level student Joel Titus, 18, was caught on CCTV throwing objects and brawling with rival hooligans. His defence team asked an Old Bailey judge not to jail the EDL ringleader after he pleaded guilty to affray, as he had secured a place at the University of Birmingham. But Titus, who has a string of previous convictions including battery of a journalist, possession of a knife, and making threats to police, was sentenced to nine months.

Yet the teenager has NOT been banned from taking up his place at the University of Birmingham upon his release.

Titus had acted as a youth organiser for the EDL and even appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight to defend the violent anti-Islamic group.

He was cautioned for battery after punching a journalist at a demonstration against the “Islamification of Europe” in December 2009. Last summer Titus took part in the soccer riot between Brentford and Leyton Orient supporters in central London. He was captured on CCTV hurling objects at rivals and fighting over a wooden pole with another thug.

While on bail for the football brawl he was also convicted for threatening behaviour for snarling “f*** off” at a police officer who tried to break up a fight. He is due to be sentenced for that offence at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in May.

Sunday Mercury, 24 April 2011

Carlisle United steward quits over support for EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carlisle EDLA Carlisle United employee has resigned following reports that Brunton Park stewards were among supporters of the man jailed for burning a copy of the Koran. United spokesman Andy Hall yesterday confirmed that a steward has now left the club.

Andrew Ryan, 32, of Summerhill, London Road, Carlisle, was sentenced to 70 days in prison for intentional religious/racial harassment on Monday. He arrived at the city magistrates’ court flanked by men waving the St George’s Cross and shouting nationalist chants.

The English Defence League Carlisle Division (EDL) had put out a call for members to support Ryan. The News & Star received reports that some of the men were stewards at Brunton Park and the club launched an investigation into their identity.

Mr Hall said: “We received the News & Star‘s photographs and are very thankful for it being brought to our attention. We looked at them with our safety staff who identified [one of the men] as a steward at Carlisle United.

“We contacted him, and he said he understood this could be misconstrued. He said that he would like to keep supporting the EDL. He said he would like to step down.

“The club will not tolerate any form of racist behaviour and, in conjunction with the FA and Football League ‘Kick it Out’ campaign, we are working strenuously to ensure that this issue does not arise at the ground.”

News & Star, 23 April 2011

Hooligan avoids jail after throwing bottle during EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Nuneaton September 2010A man who took aim with a bottle as English Defence League supporters clashed with young Asians during an army parade has escaped being jailed – despite being sentenced for affray days before the clash.

Daniel Groves, 23, of Kettlewell Close, Warwick, pleaded guilty at the crown court in Leamington to a charge of affray and was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years. He was given 18 months supervision, banned from all pubs and clubs for three months and made subject to a 8pm to 6am electronic-tag curfew for the same period.

The court heard that Groves had convictions for affray and public order offences and four days before the clash had been given a community sentence for an affray in Warwick town centre.

Prosecutor Vicki Lofrese said in September the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were on parade in Nuneaton when police spotted English Defence League (EDL) supporters heading towards a pub.

She said: “Large banners were being paraded and slogans shouted from members of that group, including ‘I am English ’til I die’ and ‘St George in my heart’. Police saw a group of about 20 in the drinking area outside singing the same slogans and ‘Taliban scum’ as a group of young Asian men began to congregate outside.”

As the tension mounted and police struggled to keep them apart, Groves was spotted throwing the bottle, which smashed near the Asian youths, and he was arrested after a struggle.

Leamington Courier, 23 April 2011

Vandals desecrate Muslim graves in High Wycombe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

High Wycombe Cemetery broken gravestone

Vandals have attacked 20 Muslim graves at a cemetery in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Headstones were pushed over and ornaments from the graves strewn around the cemetery in Hampden Road. The graves were vandalised between 2100 BST on Wednesday and 0800 BST on Thursday.

Thames Valley Police said it took the incident extremely seriously and was supporting families and the community as well as hunting the vandals. Supt Gilbert Houalla said:

“I am disgusted that these people could be so thoughtless and cowardly and cannot believe that anyone could do something so unbelievably shocking to the graves of loved ones. The community should feel reassured that we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously and will be doing all that we can to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.

“It appears that the vandals have specifically desecrated Muslim graves and I am at a loss as to what was going through the minds of those involved. This is not only an attack on the Muslim community but is an attack on us all. We must now all work together to find whoever has done this.”

BBC News, 22 April 2011

See also Bucks Free Press, 21 April 2011

For the likely inspiration behind the attack see here, here and here.

Update:  See “Community outcry after Muslim graves desecrated in High Wycombe”, Bucks Free press, 24 April 2011

Attacks on multiculturalism linked to economic crisis, IRR study finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes today Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism – a detailed analysis by Executive Director, Liz Fekete, of key speeches made over the past six months by leading centre-right politicians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

These speeches attack multiculturalism and immigration and link them to the economic crisis. The IRR finds that:

  • In singling out multiculturalism as a threat to national identity, the leaders of Europe’s centre-right parties are using the same kind of rhetoric and specious arguments as Enoch Powell did forty years ago. Only this time, it is not one rogue European politician carrying the flag, but the leaders of centre-right parties now replacing race and immigration with culture and religion as the watch words.
  • As multiculturalism becomes code for discussing the ‘Muslim problem’, the language, terms and metaphors used by centre-right politicians subtly (and in some cases crudely) convey a sense of national victimhood, of a majority culture under threat from Muslim minorities and new migrants who demand special privileges and group rights and refuse to learn the language.

In Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalismthe IRR warns that:

  • The attacks on multiculturalism are taking place at a time of economic crisis and swingeing cuts, when politicians are desperate to deflect public anger and explain societal break down. The centre Right is establishing a narrative, with some centre-left parties following suit, to justify the biggest round of spending cuts since the 1920s, blaming the current economic crisis not on the bankers and global financial crisis, but on immigration, and on Muslims.
  • As the extreme Right increasingly enters national parliaments, sometimes holding the balance of power, there are dangerous signs that the centre Right is preparing for future power-sharing with the extreme Right, as well as nativist anti-immigration parties. The fact that mainstream politicians are now speaking to the fear and hatred promoted by the extremists’ anti-multicultural platform, is giving legitimacy to conspiracy theories about Muslims and to anti-Muslim hatred.

Read the IRR’s research Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism here.

IRR press release, 21 April 2011

Pope ‘plotter’ still traumatised after arrest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim plot to kill popeA street cleaner arrested on suspicion of plotting against the Pope last year has told the BBC he is still traumatised by his ordeal.

Last September, when the Pope was visiting London, Sami, who has asked the BBC not to use his full name for fear of reprisals, was one of six men arrested under anti-terrorism laws. The 26-year-old from Algeria was the youngest.

The men, all street cleaners for Westminster Council, were detained after a tip-off to police. All were released without charge less than two days later – police said they posed “no credible threat” to the Pope.

Sami is now considering legal action against the police for false imprisonment. He accepts the police had a duty to protect the public from any potential threat but says the affair has had a profound affect on him.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme through an interpreter, Sami said that when police first detained him he had no lawyer or interpreter and did not really understand what was happening.

“The first interview – yes, it was me alone,” he said. “I was there and was being subjected to all sorts of questioning. At one stage the person interrogating me started saying ‘If anything happens to the Pope, anything at all, then you will be held responsible.’ Until now I am still traumatised by what I was subjected to.

“I felt my entire world crumbling around me. And I felt this is the end of my life. I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that I started thinking about Guantanamo Bay – you know, being transported over there.”

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4’s Face the Facts programme reported on concerns that many negative newspaper stories about Muslims turn out to be untrue. Sami says he is shocked at the way one newspaper in particular distorted the facts.

The day after the men were arrested, under the headline “Muslim plot to kill the pope“, the front page of the Daily Express accused them of being “Islamic terrorists… with links to al-Qaeda”, plotting a “double blow to the infidel” by assassinating the head of the Roman Catholic Church and slaughtering hundreds of pilgrims and well wishers.

The Press Complaints Commission received numerous complaints about the paper’s coverage. But it is powerless to act because the Express group has withdrawn from the PCC. So Sami would have to go directly to the newspaper itself – and he is not confident of success.

“Of course I would like to make a complaint and the end goal for me would be like they alleged this against us – and me personally – on the front page: I would like them to reprint another front page saying ‘We got it wrong and we apologise’. I don’t think they will be fair.”

A report is due out in the next few weeks over whether the Metropolitan Police were justified in arresting the men. It is being carried out by the new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC.

The Daily Express and Scotland Yard declined to comment.

BBC News, 19 April 2011

The ‘Islamification’ of Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scaremongering about the threat of “Islamification” facing the east London borough of Tower Hamlets has been popular in the right-wing press since Andrew Gilligan’s witch-hunting Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Islamic Republic was broadcast last year. Several papers this week have published articles on that theme.

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