Category Archives: English Defence League

Shrewsbury Muslim prayer centre plans approved

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of Shropshire Council’s planning committee voted in favour of proposals to change the use of the former register office at Column Lodge in Preston Street.

The building was sold by Shropshire Council to the Shropshire Bangladeshi Welfare Society in a £215,000 deal. The group wants to turn the site into a prayer centre and community room.

But the scheme has strongly divided opinion with Shropshire Council receiving more than 500 letters about the application prior to the latest petition, with 227 in support and 278 against. It has also led to the English Defence League protesting in the town outside the planned prayer centre.

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Condemned: The racist call to burn down Grimsby mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man urged people to burn down Grimsby’s mosque so the town could be put on the national map “big time”. Today, the dreadful comments, posted on Facebook, have been condemned by our mayor, who says: “This does not show the true face of North East Lincolnshire. The general public will be appalled by these comments.”

Steven Ballard was the second local man to be hauled before the courts in just two weeks for posting offensive comments about the mosque on the social networking site – and appeared just a day after a third man was remanded in custody charged with firebombing the Weelsby Road venue last month. Ballard, 27, of Churchill Way, Grimsby, admitted sending an offensive or menacing message on May 23.

Rebecca Dolby, prosecuting, told Grimsby magistrates that police searched an open group forum on Facebook linked to the Grimsby division of the English Defence League. Ballard posted a message at about 10pm following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby at Woolwich. It read: “Burn the mosque down the end of Legsby Avenue. That will tell the clowns in charge in this country that we ain’t taking this s*** and it will start a nationwide action going. Grimsby will be on the map big time then.”

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Two charged with Gloucester mosque arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-E-Noor GloucesterA Cheltenham man has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson following a “hate crime” at a mosque.

Ashley Henry Juggins, 20, of Brooklyn Road will appear before magistrates today following the blaze in Gloucester. Clive Michael Ceronne, 37, of Redwood Close in Gloucester faces a similar charge after an attack on Masjid-E-Noor in Ryecroft Street in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed yesterday it was being treated as a hate crime after CCTV appeared to show someone pouring petrol around the door and igniting it with a lit rag.

Since the attack police have been talking to the Muslim community in Cheltenham to allay fears. They have vowed to step up patrols around Gloucester’s mosques and said the two in Cheltenham were on current routes.

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More thugs sentenced over EDL ‘charity walk’ in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol 'Help for Heroes' marchMore people involved in the disorder in St George and Redfield last month have been punished.

On May 25, a walk raising money for the Help for Heroes military charity, and held in memory of drummer Lee Rigby who was murdered in London, ended in violent clashes between police and a group of about 60 people on Church Road. Anti-Muslim slurs were heard and pint glasses and bar stools were thrown in and around the St George’s Hall pub.

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Ban ‘fascist thuggery’ of EDL, says ex-police authority chief

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former police authority chairman has accused the English Defence League (EDL) of “fascist street thuggery” after a march in Hull that led to 10 arrests.

Trouble flared when about 75 people took part a march along Spring Bank on June 8, although those arrested were protesting against the event. Police said the men were held for public order-related offences when a “small disturbance” happened just after 1.15pm. Eight were released without charge, while a man aged 19 received a police caution for possession of a class B drug, and a 23-year-old was charged with possession of an offensive weapon in public.

Hull councillor Colin Inglis has now called on police to ban any further marches. In a motion going before a meeting of the authority tomorrow, Coun Inglis, a former chairman of Humberside Police Authority, wrote:

“Council notes the so-called ‘English Defence League’ march along Spring Bank. It further notes the deliberately provocative nature of this event with participants engaging in crude and racist behaviour clearly intended to elicit a response from local residents in a typical display of fascist street thuggery. Council believes that the residents of Myton ward, the City in general but of Spring Bank in particular, deserve to be protected against such blatant attempts to incite communal hatred and calls upon the Police to ban any further such planned marches.”

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Aberdeen councillors reject Scottish Defence League march plans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Defence League 2Aberdeen City Council have rejected an application by the Scottish Defence League to stage a march in the city on Saturday, June 29.

The right-wing organisation had submitted an application to take part in Armed Forces Day, but the route they had chosen included passing a mosque on Aberdeen’s Crown Street. However, the local authority’s Licencing Committee unanimously kicked the idea into touch when they convened on Tuesday morning, on the grounds that the SDL had failed to engage with the council or the police.

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Tower Hamlets: Labour accused over ‘inflammatory’ housing claims shared by EDL supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur Rahman talks to mediaLabour has been accused of making “inflammatory” claims after supporters of far right group the English Defence League circulated allegations that mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman prioritised supporters when allocating funding for home improvements.

The accusation that Independent mayor Mr Rahman targeted areas represented by his supporters followed the release of figures highlighting discrepancies in where renovations under the Decent Homes Programme have been completed since elections in 2010. The information was circulated by EDL supporters on social networking site Twitter.

A spokesman from the mayor’s office described Labour’s accusations as “inflammatory”, while cabinet member for housing Cllr Rabina Khan added: “The irresponsible and dangerous claims made by Labour have found their audience and are now doing the rounds with the EDL to stoke up fear within the community that some residents and areas are more deserving than others.”

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Far-right anti-Islamification protest in Burnley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

North West Frontline Firm Burnley demo

A group called the North West Frontline Firm are holding a demonstration in Burnley next Saturday to “highlight the Islamification of Great Britain and the ever growing problem of mass immigration”.

One of several far-right “unity” initiatives that emerged out of the fragmentation of the English Defence League, the organisation claims to have been “set up by affiliates of various Patriotic groups throughout the North West”. In a recent Facebook post they state piously: “We aren’t extremist nazis like the various left wing factions would have you believe. We are simply concerned British Patriots.”

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Racist thugs who beat up Muslim are banned from EDL activities, narrowly avoid jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

James Whitbread and Salvatore AllegroTwo racist thugs who beat up an innocent man and told him “go back to your own country” have narrowly avoided jail.

Salvatore Allegro, 48, of Home Gardens, Dartford, and James Whitbread, 36, from Rochester, carried out the unprovoked attack at Bank Underground station on August 18 last year. The pair were both found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence following a short trial, with Allegro also being found guilty of common assault.

This morning, District Judge Vanessa Lloyd handed the pair suspended prison sentences at Westminster Magistrates Court.

The victim, Ahmad Farhan, boarded an Underground train at Bond Street station with his girlfriend when he first heard a group of white males talking about “f***ing Islams.” As he left the train at Bank station at around 5pm, the group of men also left the train and were heard singing racist hate songs. Mr Farhan said he was “wary” of the group as he left the train and heard one of the men, later identified as Allegro, say “go back to your own country you f***ing Muslim c**t.”

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