Are feelings of mutual admiration blossoming between two headline-grabbing, anti-Muslim factions: one in England, one in Myanmar?

Wirathu, the soft-spoken but sharp-tongued face of Myanmar’s 969 movement, has told the Times of London that his organization aims to imitate the English Defence League or EDL, a movement that recently made headlines by launching angry street protests after two hardline Muslim men hacked a British soldier to death in a London street.

“People give me various names: the Burmese bin Laden, the bald neo-Nazi… we would like to be like the EDL. Not carrying out violence but protecting the public,” the well-known Buddhist monk told reporter Richard Lloyd Parry.

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Vandals daubed a swastika on the door of a proposed mosque.

The graffiti was painted onto the front door of the old Bank Chamber building, which is owned by an Islamic group that wants to convert it into a mosque, in Green Lane, Worcester Park, between 8am and 11pm on Tuesday, June 4.

The attack comes in the aftermath of the murder of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby near his barracks in Woolwich last month and in the midst of a spate of vandalism on Muslim buildings around the country.

Vandals painted the red swastika – the emblem of the Nazi party – on the door of the building but it was quickly covered up by green paint. Police are investigating.

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Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse has been the subject of racist abuse on the NEWCASTLE – English Defence League Facebook page.

The abuse centres around Cisse’s religion and comes after reports emerged that Cisse will refuse to wear Newcastle’s new kit which will be branded with Wonga.com, a payday loans company.

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More than 60 members from the Shropshire division of the English Defence League staged demonstrations today over plans for the former Shrewsbury Register Office at Column Lodge to become an Islamic centre.

The plans by Shropshire Bangladesh Welfare Society, to move Shrewsbury’s first Muslim prayer centre into the town’s former register office have sparked fierce debate. Shropshire Council has received hundreds of letters of both objection and support since the plans were submitted on April 30.

Protests by the EDL began at 1pm. A dozen police officers were present but the protest passed off peacefully. During the 30 minute protest the crowd, mainly men, stood on the Column roundabout chanting and a number of comments were passed between EDL supporters and a handful of opponents who gathered on the other side of the road.

Shropshire Star, 8 June 2013