The home secretary has agreed to a police request to ban the far-right English Defence League from staging a march through one of the UK’s biggest Muslim communities in east London.

Theresa May said she would outlaw any marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs – whether by the EDL or any other groups – for the next 30 days, having “balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected”. She added: “I know that the Metropolitan police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected.”

Police sought the ban after the EDL – which has seen widespread public disorder at earlier rallies – planned to march on 3 September through Tower Hamlets, which has a significant Muslim community, many of Bangladeshi origin.

In a statement the force said it made the request following information that prompted fears that the march could cause “serious public disorder, violence and damage”. It added: “Tactically we believe this is the best option to prevent this.”

Chief Superintendent Julia Pendry warned EDL supporters to stay away. “We have made this decision [to seek the ban] based on specific intelligence and information, and our message is clear: we do not want people coming into the areas to attend these events.”

The march had been vehemently opposed by community leaders, among them the two local MPs and the borough’s mayor, as well as a series of Muslim and Jewish groups.

Guardian, 26 August 2011

Tower Hamlets’ police chief is in the middle of two days of talks with community leaders over whether the Met should apply to the Home Office to ban the planned English Defence League march in Whitechapel on September 3.

It follows threats by Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman that he will take the Met Police to the High Court if they do not make the application.

Chief Insp Paul Rickett is due at the Town Hall today (Thursday) for a meeting of the Community Contingency Planning and Tension monitoring group. It follows a meeting yesterday with the Independent Police Advisory group held at his Bethnal Green office.

“The EDL tell us if they’re banned they’ll implement a series of unannounced, sporadic demonstrations,” he told the Advertiser. “A ban could mean an EDL demo in the East End that would be a massive challenge to the police – I don’t know if I have the resources to cope.”

The EDL applied weeks ago under the law to demonstrate and is currently negotiating the route and how the march will be managed. “We can request the Home Office for a ban only if they refuse our conditions,” Mr Rickett warned. “The EDL say they’ll submit application after application to stage a march if we seek a ban – there could be a sustained challenge.”

But he warned a Home Office ban on an EDL march would be an “own goal” which would also stop United East End coalition’s counter march against the EDL planned for the same day.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets has been negotiating with Scotland Yard this week after he publicly warned the Metropolitan Commissioner on Friday that he will go to court unless an application is made by Monday.

Mr Rahman said: “I will instruct lawyers to go to the High Court and seek injunctive relief if the police fail to act. We will not let the EDL or any other bunch of extremists divide our community.” He challenged Home Secretary Theresa May to use her powers to stop the EDL coming to Whitechapel on grounds of public safety.

But no decision had been made by yesterday (Wednesday) by Scotland Yard’s Public Order Office on a ban – despite a 25,000-name petition to stop the EDL handed in last week. The Town Hall yesterday said: “We are still negotiating with the police and our own lawyers.”

East London Advertiser, 25 August 2011

The campaign to have a march planned by the English Defence League through one of London’s most ethnically-diverse boroughs banned looks to have been successful. The Metropolitan Police has announced that it is “in the process of applying to the Home Secretary for authority to prohibit a march in five London boroughs for a period of thirty days.” It will be effective from 2 September.

More details of the application are promised later, including the names of the boroughs affected, one of which is undoubtedly Tower Hamlets. The application, which is highly unlikely to be turned down, applies to all marches in the boroughs concerned, including a planned counter-march against the EDL.

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman has applauded the decision of acting Met commissioner Tim Godwin, thanked the “thousands of people” who supported the campaign and asked those who had planned “to march in support of our cause to stand down.” He added, “You have helped us achieve our aim and we no longer need a mass show of support.” Tower Hamlets borough police commander Paul Rickett is understood to be fully in support of the measure, although as an East London Advertiser report indicates, the possibility remains of rallies or static demonstrations taking place.

The EDL’s eagerness to parade in Tower Hamlets arises from a false belief that the borough is seething with Muslim extremists plotting to infiltrate political institutions and destroy English cultural traditions. This is, of course, a ludicrous distortion of reality based on a fantasy version of the East End and its history. Sadly, it is hardly contradicted by selective, exaggerated and simplistic reporting by some journalists. The area has even been described as an “Islamic Republic“, when it is plainly no such thing.

These are sensationalist simplifications of an extremely complex picture. They may generate marketable media product, but by neglecting such crucial factors as the wider story of Bangladeshi Londoners’ long-running community struggles, the role of competing groups within the Tower Hamlets Labour Party and the intricacies of local Muslims’ social and political activism they obscure far more than they claim to reveal. They also do more harm than good to a part of the capital that has many social problems and where maintaining what are generally good community relations can require considerable subtlety and skill.

Dave Hill’s London Blog, 25 August 2011

The prospect of a static assembly by the EDL does indeed remain. However, the police have the power under Section 14 of the Public Order Act to “give directions imposing on the persons organising or taking part in the assembly such conditions as to the place at which the assembly may be (or continue to be) held, its maximum duration, or the maximum number of persons who may constitute it”.

West Yorkshire Police used Section 14 in Dewsbury in June, when they refused to allow the EDL to hold its static protest in the town centre and instead penned them in the station car park, well away from the Muslim community they had come to intimidate. The acting Met police commissioner should be urged to do the same, by banning the EDL from holding their protest anywhere near the centre of Tower Hamlets and instructing them to hold it, say, in a fenced-off area of Victoria Park.

If the EDL were allowed to hold a static protest near the centre of Tower Hamlets they would no doubt be escorted by the police to the area where the protest was to be held, so they would effectively get to have a march anyway, with the consequent threat of public disorder that led to their march being banned in the first place.

Update:  See “Full speed ahead for anti-EDL demo: Sat 3 Sept, Tower Hamlets”, UAF news report 25 August 2011