Category Archives: English Defence League

Lincoln anti-racist campaigners want support to counter East Anglian Patriots

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lincoln anti-racist demonstrator (2)Anti-racist campaigners want to swell their ranks with a ‘rally against racism’ in the lead-up to a protest march in Lincoln next week.

Lincoln Against Racism and Fascism will hold the meeting to build support for its March Against Racism to oppose a rally by the East Anglian Patriots (EAP) group three days later.

Lincolnshire Police confirmed in November last year that the ESP, which demonstrated against the building of a mosque in Boultham Park Road in June, were planning to return this month. The previous demonstrations attracted hundreds of people to the city.

Spokesperson for the anti-racist group, Nick Parker, said: “This meeting will highlight our group’s continued opposition to far-right groups like the East Anglian Patriots and the racism that they try to spread in our city when their supporters shout disgusting slogans like ‘burn the mosque’.

“We will use this opportunity to give ordinary local people the chance to hear what we have to say and we appeal to everyone to join us in taking to the streets next weekend to peacefully demonstrate that we will stand up for our community when the far-right tries to divide us.”

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EDL supporter Darren Clifft jailed over Ku Klux Klan video

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Darren Clifft in KKK outfitA racist who admitted posting a video online showing someone in a Ku Klux Klan costume hanging a life-size golliwog doll was this afternoon jailed for one year.

Christopher Philips, from Wolverhampton, who used a series of pseudonyms and even impersonated mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik had pleaded guilty to posting three videos online, which were filmed at a music concert and intended to stir up racial hatred. The court was previously told the event had been organised by an extreme right wing group in West Wales in March.

Philips – who was formerly known as EDL supporter – was arrested later that month following an investigation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. The 23-year-old also faced a second charge of using words or behaviour intending to incite racial hatred, but it was left to lie on file after he pleaded not guilty.

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EDL outnumbered by counter-demonstrators in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bristol anti-mosque protestCentral Bristol witnessed ugly scenes this evening as right wing protesters opposed to plans to open a mosque in Stokes Croft were confronted by counter-demonstrators.

About 30 supporters of the English Defence League turned out on College Green to stage what had been advertised as a “peaceful” protest against the former Jesters comedy club in Cheltenham Road being turned into a mosque. Bristol Unite Against Fascism held a counter-demonstration, attended by about 80 people, which led to a 40-minute stand-off near the entrance to Bristol Cathedral.

The two groups shouted slogans and abuse at each other, separated by a cordon of about 24 police officers in high-visibility jackets. At one stage there was a minor scuffle but a police inspector later said he knew of no arrests. The anti-Fascists shouted: “Nazi scum! Off our streets!” The right wingers responded: “UAF! Off our streets!”

EDL members began to disperse after about half-an-hour. They had gathered at a pub near the Arnolfini arts centre before being escorted to City Hall for the protest.

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EDL faces counter-protest in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol UAF anti-EDL demonstration

In response to news that council officers have granted a planning application to convert a disused former comedy club (which has been lying empty for the past two years) into an Islamic centre comprising a mosque, community facilities, a café and a flat, the Bristol division of the English Defence League will be holding a demonstration tomorrow evening to protest against what they term a “hate preaching centre”. It will take place outside City Hall, where a meeting is being held at which those who expressed their objections to the development without descending into anti-Muslim bigotry and racism (i.e. very few EDL supporters) will have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with representatives of the Muslim community.

Unite Against Fascism are organising a counter-demonstration under the slogan “No EDL racists in Bristol”.

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EDL protest in Sleaford is cancelled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Organisers of a planned protest by members of the English Defence League have called it off.

Lincolnshire Police had been contacted by the English Defence League, expressing a wish to hold a local protest in Station Road, Sleaford this Saturday, January 11, but the organisers have now got back in touch to say it is cancelled.

Although not specified by the EDL, the protest was due to be close to the site of a planned prayer hall on Station Road by the local Sleaford Muslim Association.

Sleaford Standard, 6 January 2014

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EDL opposes Anjem Choudary … by shouting abuse at Regent’s Park Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Edgware Road protest (2)Anjem Choudary had announced that on Saturday afternoon, as a follow-up to their recent anti-alcohol protest in Brick Lane, his tiny group of extremists (now operating under the name of The Shariah Project) would be holding a Rally Against Gambling on the Edgware Road. Shortly before the event was due to start, however, Choudary issued a press release stating that the demonstration had been called off “due to severe weather conditions” – i.e. it was raining. Evidently the resources of The Shariah Project don’t extend to providing its supporters with waterproof clothing.

This is, of course, what we have come to expect from Choudary. Time and again he pulls the same stunt. The March for Shari’ah in London in 2009, a demonstration in Wootton Bassett in 2010 against the invasion of Afghanistan, a rally outside the White House the same year to advocate sharia law in the US, a protest against the royal wedding in 2011, a supposed conference at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2102 – in every case Choudary announced some provocative action and then, having wrung the maximum amount of publicity out of the resulting controversy, he released a last-minute statement that the event has been “postponed”. The surprising feature of the Brick Lane anti-alcohol protest was that it even took place at all.

Despite the no-show from Choudary at Edgware Road, the English Defence League and its far-right allies – reportedly including March for England, the Casuals and the South East Alliance – went ahead with a counter-protest. One of the participating groups, Britain First, which originates in a split from the British National Party, declared that Choudary had bottled out of holding his demonstration “in the face of a threatened major turnout from patriots of Britain First”. Judging by their own photograph, the “major turnout” consisted of around two dozen people.

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Stoke EDL member stole chocolate bar from Marks and Spencers – before racially abusing and assaulting security guards

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anthony ForresterAlcoholic Anthony Forrester attacked two supermarket security guards – after they asked him to pay for a bar of chocolate he had stolen and eaten.

The 44-year-old was in the Marks and Spencer store, in Hanley, on October 17 when he picked up a 69p bar of chocolate and ate it without paying. North Staffordshire Magistrates Court heard yesterday how store security guards Ian Creed and Bekezela Ndlovu followed Forrester to Iceland, in Charles Street, to ask him to pay for the food.

Prosecuting, Giles Rowden said: “Mr Forrester picked up a bar of chocolate and ate it and threw the wrapper away. He was approached by the security guards and told them he would pay for it, but he then left the store. The security guards saw the defendant in the Iceland store where he became abusive.”

The court heard that he racially abused and swore at Mr Ndlovu claimed he was a member of the English Defence League.

Mr Rowden added: “He was using abusive language towards Mr Ndlovu, who was just trying to do his job. The other security guard was then punched in the head and bit on the hand. Forrester was then arrested, but on the way to custody he damaged a Perspex cage belonging to Staffordshire Police.”

Forrester, of St Luke’s Court, in Hanley, pleaded guilty to five charges which included theft, assault by beating, criminal damage and using racially abusive and offensive language.

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EDL to protest against Islamification of small Lincolnshire town with tiny Muslim community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Sleaford demo adThe English Defence League is set to hold a protest rally in Sleaford close to a building that is set to be transformed into a Muslim prayer hall.

Lincolnshire Police have been contacted by the EDL who have expressed a wish to hold a protest in the town on January 11. The protest has been announced via Facebook and is planned to be held on the small North Kesteven District Council car park opposite the railway station on Station Road, starting at 1.30pm.

In November the district council decided to allow planning permission for Grantham and Sleaford Muslim Association to create a prayer hall in a redundant brick storage shed/workshop. Members of the EDL have not expressly stated the reason for January’s proposed action.

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UK anti-Muslim hate crime soars, police figures show

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hate crimes against Muslims have soared in the UK this year, figures show.

Hundreds of anti-Muslim offences were carried out across the country in 2013, with Britain’s biggest force, the Metropolitan police, recording 500 Islamophobic crimes.

Many forces reported a surge in the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich, south-east London, in May.

But the figures could be much higher as nearly half of the 43 forces in England and Wales did not reveal how many hate crimes had targeted Muslims. Some forces admitted they did not always record the faith of a religious hate-crime victim.

Freedom of Information requests were sent by the Press Association to every police force in England and Wales. Of the 43 forces, 24 provided figures on the number of anti-Muslim crimes and incidents recorded.

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Woman accused of headbutting cop after EDL rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hollie Smallwood EDL

A woman accused of trying to headbutt a police officer after a protest march by right-wing groups in South Tyneside will stand trial next year.

Hollie Smallwood denies obstructing or resisting a police officer in the execution of their duty, and being drunk and disorderly in a public place. The two charges relate to a march through South Shields by members of the English Defence League (EDL) and the North East Infidels on Saturday, August 31.

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