The English Defence League marched through Newcastle today. The local paper, the Evening Chronicle, reported that around 1,500 EDL members participated in the protest, with up to 1,000 joining the counter-demonstration by Newcastle Unites. (See also ITV News and Sky Tyne and Wear reports.)
Chanting their usual slogans of “I’m English till I die” and “Whose streets? Our streets”, the EDL threw firecrackers, bottles and cans, attacked photographers and clashed with police.
Four people have been arrested amid protests in Portsmouth, including two outside Southsea’s Jami Mosque.
Officers from Hampshire Constabulary stood guard outside the mosque, in Victoria Road North, this evening after small pockets of people expressed an intention to protest. The force says it has extra officers out on the streets to ensure protests remain peaceful and prevent disorder.
A community leader has spoken of his fears after a mosque was targeted in a racist attack.
Majid Yasin, imam and director of the Bournemouth Islamic Centre and Central Mosque, said the words “Muslim scum” were daubed in red on the walls of the building in St Stephen’s Road on Thursday night. Dorset Police have confirmed that they are investigating the incident.
Mr Yasin said he fears the attack on the mosque was carried out in retribution after the murder of serving soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich earlier this week, an act allegedly committed by two British-born men who have converted to Islam.
The daughter of a man killed on his way home from a mosque says she believes his death was racially-motivated. Mohammed Saleem, 75, was stabbed after leaving the Green Lane Mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham, on 29 April.
His daughter, Shazia Khan, said police were not listening to her family and her brother was threatened, apparently by the English Defence League, prior to their father’s death. West Midlands Police said it would work “tirelessly to find the killer” of Mr Saleem.
Nearly two-thirds of people believe there will be a ‘clash of civilisations’ between British Muslims and white Britons in the wake of the murder of a British soldier in Woolwich, a new poll shows. The number of those who believe such a clash is inevitable has increased by 9% from last year.
There has also been a small increase in the proportion of people who believe British Muslims pose a serious threat to democracy, up to 34% on Thursday and Friday from 30% in November 2012, according to the YouGov survey of 1,839 adults.
However the YouGov poll provides evidence that Britain does remain a tolerant country and that the far-right support remains at the margins of society. Nearly two-thirds (63%) believe the vast majority of Muslims are good British citizens, up by 1% from last November.
Members of the National Front held a rally in Swansea city centre this afternoon. Around 20 members from the far right group staged the meeting in Castle Square following the murder of drummer Lee Rigby in London on Wednesday. Amid a heavy South Wales Police presence, the hour-long rally passed without incident.
One man protesting against the group was National Union of Students Wales International Officer Edmund Schuessel. He said: “The extreme right was going to try and capitalise on the events of Wednesday and try and intimidate the Muslim community in Britain. This is a port city, a university city for a century. It has always been open to an international population. They want to see a return of the paranoid regression of the 1930s and 40s. They need to be actively resisted.”
The BNP and EDL are accused of attempting to fuel racial hatred, the Independent reports.
Two men have appeared in court in connection with an alleged attack on a Poole mosque. Robert Mullins, 35, of Shaftesbury, and his brother Trevor Mullins, 38, of Poole, appeared at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court this morning.
The pair are charged with racially aggravated criminal damage in relation to an alleged attack at the Dorset Islamic Centre in Ashley Road, Parkstone, on Thursday afternoon. In a short hearing they spoke to only confirm their names and addresses. Both men were given conditional bail.
Police have arrested three people ahead of an EDL protest for allegedly making racist tweets.
Northumbria Police said two people from Gateshead and a third from Stockton, Teesside, were held earlier. The EDL has planned their demonstration for months, but the horrific murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday has heightened tensions in the local community.
A counter demonstration by opponents of the EDL has been planned.
Dozens of English Defence League supporters – including the group’s main leader – temporarily blocked a busy main road through Wolverhampton in an impromptu protest against the Woolwich terror attack, last night.
Around 60 people walked into the middle of Birmingham New Road, at its junction with Spring Road and Rookery Road, in Lanesfield at around 7.40pm.