Christopher Knowles, once linked to the EDL’s founding father Alan Ayling (aka Alan Lake) has been sacked from his post with Leeds city council’s children’s service department.
Knowles was one of the original rising stars in the British “anti-Jihadist” scene and travelled and spoke at a number of gatherings representing the British arm of the movement, including a rally in support of Dutch MP Geert Wilders in Berlin in 2010 before also appearing at the EDL’s disastrous rally in Amsterdam a few months later and in the company of future British Freedom Party chief Paul Weston.
Knowles posted on various anti Islamic websites and forums using the online pseudonym “Aeneas Lavinium”.
He was also a director of the US based Center for Vigilant Freedom. According to its website, the Center for Vigilant Freedom (CVF) was founded in September 2006. Knowles is also described as the CVF’sUKcountry co-ordinator.
A once prolific writer and blogger, Knowles had a profile on the 4Freedoms website used by the global anti-Islam movement but deleted this profile shortly after Breivik shootings.
A spokesperson for Hope Not Hate in Yorkshire who campaigned to have him removed said that he was “glad” that the situation surrounding a far-right activist working in children’s services “has been resolved”.
Unsurprisingly, one anti-Islam blog has just described his sacking as “More evidence of the soft totalitarian methods of the UK. ” In EDL parlance, we believe that could mean they think it is creeping Sharia.
Knowles himself is indignant that his trade union, UNISON, refused to represent him at the disciplinary hearing. To which we can only reply – good for UNISON.
Update: See “Leeds council sacks a leading strategist behind the racist EDL”, Socialist Worker, 9 August 2012