Police have made a handful of arrests after bottles, cans and other missiles were hurled at officers during an English Defence League rally. A total of four people were arrested, all for public order offences, at the EDL rally and a counter-demonstration in separate public squares in Birmingham city centre.
Matthew Broomfield talks to the head of the English Defence League’s LGBT division, one “Tommy English”, who dismisses the rampant – and on occasion violent – homophobia within the EDL and tells Broomfield that “the spread of [Islam] will increase homophobia and homophobic attacks”.
Reporting the sentencing of English Defence League activist Adam Rogers, the Hastings & St Leonards Observer adds the following information:
“Just a fortnight ago, Kevin Newsome, 58, from Luton, was fined £200 by Hastings magistrates after he walked into Hastings Mosque late at night on August 18 last year, threw a number of shoes into the street, and harassed a Muslim family.”
Wolverhampton Central Mosque was evacuated tonight as the police investigation into explosions near mosques in Walsall and Tipton took a series of dramatic twists.
A bomb disposal team and specialist police officers were dispatched to the mosque in Waterloo Road at 8pm after new information came to light in the mosque blasts inquiry. Detectives were working on fresh intelligence suggesting a device had been activated at the Wolverhampton mosque on June 28.
Main routes near the mosque were closed and the area cleared while police conduct searches. By 10pm the cordon had been reduced to 60ft surrounding the Five Ways island. The shut roads included Foxes Lane, Dunstall Avenue, Dunstall Hill, Dunstall Road, Waterloo Road and North Road.
Two men have been arrested in connection with an explosion near a mosque in Walsall last month.
A 25-year-old and 22-year-old, both Eastern European, are being questioned by detectives from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. An area near Talbot Way, Small Heath, Birmingham, is being searched. Some nearby properties have been evacuated. Parts of Small Heath Highway, Golden Hillock Road, and Coventry Road are closed.
One eyewitness told BBC WM about 100 people had initially been evacuated from businesses close to the area being searched. Embreen Hashmi said:
“All of a sudden there was an entourage of police and they cordoned off the whole business park and everybody had to come out on to the street. We weren’t sure what it was and everybody was saying that it was some sort of bomb scare which frightened us. When we spoke to people that worked in the same building as one of the suspects he said there was a chap that they used to work with and that he was actually being forced down by armed police and they had to evacuate the building.”
A Facebook user who stirred up “appalling, racist and anti-religious” hatred about burning down a Grimsby mosque has been jailed for eight weeks. His remarks were “beyond the pale” and could easily have fanned the flames of more racial and religious hatred, Grimsby Magistrates’ Court heard.
Terence Baker, 25, of Columbia Road, Grimsby, admitted sending an offensive or menacing message on May 24.
Brendan Woodward, prosecuting, said Baker posted messages on his Facebook site after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich. He made comments about the Grimsby mosque being burned down.
“The comments were quite inflammatory in nature, particularly in the context of what was occurring at that time,” said Mr Woodward. “He was asked about their extreme nature in relation to burning the mosque down but he declined to comment.”
English Defence League protesting at Downing Street in May
Police plan to control English Defence League supporters when they arrive in Birmingham on Saturday by basing them inside a PUB for up to three hours. The right-wing protestors will be kept at Bar Risa in Broad Street from around 11am to 2pm – raising fears of a repeat of the alcohol-fuelled disorder witnessed at a previous city rally in September 2009.
The West Midlands force has drafted in 1,000 officers to police the Centenary Square event, with hundreds of EDL supporters reportedly travelling from around the country via coach and rail to attend. Anti-fascist groups are planning a protest rival demonstration in nearby Chamberlain Square.
But in a bid to keep the factions apart the Mail has learned West Midlands Police will shepherd EDL supporters arriving in the city on coaches to the popular Bar Risa from around 11am. They will then be led to Centenary Square from around 2pm for the rally which is set to finish at 4pm.
Oppose EDL in Birmingham
The English Defence League (EDL) has announced its intention to demonstrate in Birmingham this Saturday 20 July. This follows a series of attacks on Mosques as racists seek to escalate Islamophobia and intimidation of Muslims, following the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich in May.
Recently, the Kanz-ul-Iman Muslim Welfare Association Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton was attacked with a nail bomb, leading the Police to consider it a terrorist attack. Last month the Jinnah Road Mosque in Redditch was broken into and sprayed with a swastika, “EDL”, “NF”, “KKK”, and other racist graffiti, and a homemade bomb exploded outside the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre in Walsall.
The EDL’s demonstrations often descend into violence and intimidation of Muslims and other ethnic minority groups and disrupt otherwise peaceful communities. We have been campaigning in Birmingham to build support for a united community response against the EDL.
We want a peaceful counter demonstration on the day to show that Birmingham is a united, multicultural and peaceful community that does not want racist and fascist thugs intimidating or attacking Muslims or any other minority group in our city. We urge all who are concerned to reject the EDL’s attempt to divide our community and stand with us.
UNITE AGAINST EDL AND CELEBRATE MULTI-CULTURAL BIRMINGHAM
Sat 20 July, 12pm
Golden Boys statue, Outside the House of Sport, Broad Street, Birmingham
Police have today (Wednesday) released pictures of a man they urgently want to speak to in connection with the attack on the Aisha Mosque in Walsall last month.
The images – released to the public as part of a major investigation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit – show a man, believed to be white, in his 20s or 30s and of slim to medium build.
A city centre mosque has finally opened its doors – after years of delays and an attempt to blow it up. The building, in Regent Road, Hanley, is now being used for prayers ahead of its official completion.
Plans for the Islamic centre were first tabled back in 2000, but the project sparked controversy after it emerged Stoke-on-Trent City Council had agreed to lease the site for a £1 peppercorn rent. The mosque suffered a further setback after a plot to blow up the building caused more than £50,000 of damage.
But the £2 million mosque is now nearly finished and is expected to be officially opened next month. In the meantime it has been opened for prayers for the holy month of Ramadan.