There are countless images which could be used to illustrate this post, but this one in particular stuck out when doing a Google Images search. It was taken by the Birmingham Post during an English Defence League protest in Dudley last year.
The EDL plan a march through Tower Hamlets on September 3. Mayor Lutfur Rahman, Glynn Robins and everyone else of sane mind are right in saying that should not happen.
After the events in Norway, I doubt that it will be allowed to take place. David Cameron will chair a session of the National Security Council and I suspect very strongly that the question of Anders Breivik’s admiration for the EDL will be discussed.
The PM will want to send a message out that Right-wing extremism will not be tolerated. I suspect there will be some discussion about whether the EDL can be proscribed under terror legislation, even temporarily so while investigations continue into Breivik’s background.
The Government has banned Al Muhajiroun and its many guises over the years and having reported on a couple of Anjem Choudary’s silly little marches through London, it’s actually quite easy to feel sympathy for him when the EDL turn up.
They are dangerous thugs who actually play straight into the hands of religious extremists by forcing moderates to sit alongside nutters and hate-peddlers.
Yes, we have some issues in Tower Hamlets, but having talked to people about them in various traditional East End pubs, it’s very clear to me that the EDL are neither welcome nor supported here.
Here’s the message from the Hope not Hate campaign:
Ban the march of hate
On Saturday 3 September the English Defence League plan to march through the streets of Tower Hamlets. They want to peddle their racism and hatred through the heart of one of Britain’s biggest Muslim communities. I would like your help to stop them.
The EDL want to whip up racism and terrorise the local Muslim community. There can be no other explanation for their provocative march. They are coming to East London looking for a confrontation and trying to provoke a violent reaction. This is the last thing the people of Tower Hamlets want or need.
We are calling on the authorities to ban this hate march.
We have shown before that we can force the authorities to act. We stopped the EDL from marching through a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Bradford last year. More recently we forced the Home Secretary to ban the controversial US preacher, Pastor Jones, from entering Britain.
Now we need to stop the EDL from marching in Tower Hamlets in September.
Tower Hamlets has a long and proud history of immigration and resistance to racism and fascism and so we must stand up against the EDL now. We’ve made a difference before and I know we can be successful again. Please sign our petition.
Trial by Jeory 
Now if there was ever a reason for having a delayed post about this post (see https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/tower-hamlets-a-new-investigation/#comment-3716), Norway unfortunately supplied it on Friday.
I rather imagine that there is going to be a tightening up by central and local government/security forces/police individuals and parties expressing extreme positions whatever religion or perspective they espouse
It’s now very clear that extreme Christian fundamentalism is every bit as dangerous and potentially lethal as extreme Islamic fundamentalism when believers advocate or support people who believe in violence towards others in society as a legitimate method for advancing their beliefs.
What is WRONG is fundamentalism period.
The reason why is because it leans towards intolerance – and intolerance has absolutely no place in today’s society – no matter what your perspective is.
@ You couldn’t make it up. Anders Breivik is not a Christian Fundamentalist. This is just part of the Lefts attempt to smear as many people as possible with his crime. On page 1398 of his own manifesto “A European Declaration of Independence” he states “I went from moderately agnostic to moderately religious” His further view on his own status and religion in Norway is
“Christian, Protestant but I support a reformation of Protestantism leading to it being re-absorbed by Catholicism. The typical “Protestant Labour Church” has to be deconstructed as its creation was an attempt to abolish the Church”
I would be more inclined to support a ban on the proposed English Defence League march through Tower Hamlets in September if the so called anti-fascists of “Hope not Hate” and the UAF were even handed in their opposition to extremists. Dispite your warning about the Islamist Hisb ut-Tahrir holding a major Conference at the Bangladeshi owned Water Lily Centre in Whitechapel.
https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/1062/
This meeting went ahead on the 9th July without any opposition or further comment.
http://www.khilafah2011.com/global-struggle/the-london-khilafah-conference-july-2011
Hisb ut-Tahrir is an anti-democratic far-right organisation that seeks to restore the medieval Islamic Caliphate. Its objectives in Britain is to gain domination of the Muslim community and manipulate it for its own purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir#Policies
Were the UAF outside protesting in the Whitechapel Road against this bunch of Islamo-fascists? So why are they stirring up opposition and therefore the threat of violence against the EDL march?
Appreciated that back on 13 July, Ted allowed my comment containing a link to the Hope Not Hate petition. (It’s under the Shahed Ali post.)
Now there is a PUBLIC RALLY this FRIDAY 29 JULY, 7pm at the London Muslim Centre on Whitechapel Road:
“United East End presented its petition at a full Tower Hamlets council meeting on 13 July. It was signed by a range of local community leaders including the Reverend Alan Green (Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum), Rebecca Shaw (Rainbow Hamlets LGBT Group), Dilowar Khan (London Muslim Centre), Phil Sedler (Tower Hamlets Tenants Federation), Sister Christine Frost (Neighbours in Poplar), John McLoughlin (Tower Hamlets Unison), Alex Kenny (East London NUT) and Max Levitas, a veteran of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street.
United East End is working in partnership with the national organisation Unite Against Fascism. The two organisations worked together last year to hold a peaceful demonstration of 5,000 people on 21 June 2010 that expressed the unity of our community and successfully kept the EDL out.
To launch preparations for the 3 September event, United East End and Unite Against Fascism are holding a public rally on Friday 29 July, 7pm at the London Muslim Centre on Whitechapel Road. Speakers will include the Right Reverend Adrian Newman, the new Bishop of Stepney, in his first public engagement in the borough.”
UAF are involved but they were also involved last year with United East End when the peaceful demonstration of 5,000 people prevented the EDL from coming to Tower Hamlets.
To “Blue Dwarf”: the local community leaders named above, including once again the remarkable Max Levitas, will hopefully be “stirring up opposition” – as successfully as they did last year. Max and the others surely would not be involved a second time with UAF if this was “stirring up opposition and therefore the threat of violence against the EDL march.” ?? No doubt you will find some reason to undermine and discredit this initiative from United East End and UAF…and then it will be “Rachel” if the IFE have even the slightest connection and then “Imran Khan” will wade in with more Operation Black Vote bashing. It is so negative and divisive here.
No Pasaran! – They Shall Not Pass! – Cable Street, 1936. Local residents, kids, veterans, all, will just hope to recreate that presence and stop the EDL. No threat of violence. Wasn’t the demonstration and protest last year peaceful – and successful?
@Anon “Wasn’t the demonstration and protest last year peaceful – and successful?”
Er, no. The March itself may have gone off without incident but there was significant anti-police violence and attacks on members of the public outside the East London Mosque.
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/angry_clashes_in_whitechapel_as_violent_mob_gathers_at_mosque_1_672443
Blue Dwarf – as it says in the press release, there was a “PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION” last year. This peaceful demonstration – a march – was separate to the mob incident you have written about. Read the ELA article you link to:
“Earlier, a 1500 strong march organised by Unite Against Fascism had passed off peacefully, setting off from Stepney Green Park and finishing at Altab Ali Park.
But the mob that had gathered outside the mosque – separately to the march – rapidly turned violent.”
The march organised by UAF and United East End passed off peacefully – and earlier and at a separate location. Why try and smear the people and local community leaders involved in this peaceful demonstration last year – and this year – with a separate, later incident/mob at a different location? How nasty. You must not live here as you would not do this to these people. You also do not seem to know the geography of the area.
@anon Sorry but your timings are incorrect. The trouble outside the East London Mosque started on Sunday 20th June 2011 at about 12:30pm according to the East London Advertiser. This was incidentally the time set for the UAF march to start at Stepney Green Park (although interestingly the SWP wanted its members to congregate at 11am in Altab Ali Park)
http://swp.org.uk/stop-edl-tower-hamlets
The 1,500 strong March was therefore heading towards the East London Mosque and AAP while the anti-police violence was going on!
http://uaf.org.uk/2010/06/keep-the-racist-edl-out-of-east-london/
Altab Ali Park is only a few yards from the Mosque and it was here the march ended with a Rally. Check out the Youtube video below to see this. Note the masked youths seen at the end of the clip and the flag they are displaying (note thge reference to masked youths in the original ELA article)
Sorry to disappoint you “anon” but I’ve actually lived in Tower Hamlets for over 30 years and East London all my life. Its “excrement agitators” like you who are the real problem and attract the likes of the EDL.
Ted, it’s nice to see you think the EDL are dangerous thugs, but dont you think fear, division and hatred can also be peddled by headlines such as ‘BRITAIN MUST BAN MIGRANTS’ on the front of national newspapers?
Can you give a link to the headline, I must say I missed it?
For those who can stomach it, The following video exemplifies the violence and thuggery of the EDL. An EDL member attacks ‘Pakis’ on the London Underground and films it. Shocking and disgusting.
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/13378
I’m appalled by this “happy slapping” incident. Perhaps you would like to condemn this UAF “activist” who attacked a female reporter simply because she was interviewing a BNP candidate?
All forms of violence and thuggery by whoever are to be utterly condemned, but the nature and tone of your postings suggests you have an ulterior motive.
@Adrian. An ulterior motive? Do you mean one other than exposing so called anti-Fascist front organisations like the UAF as extremists who want to use local Muslim youths to gain control of the streets. In exactly the same way as the EDL use football supporters.
Typically the so called anti-fascists at “Hope Not Hate are using the Breivik affair to smear the centre-right political Party he was a member of until 2007.
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/article/1918/norway-attacks-anders-behring-breivik-was-act
Far from being a far-right fringe group the Norwegian Progress Party is a Liberal Party and the second largest in Norway’s Parliament, as can be seen from its wikipedia profile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_(Norway)
It was founded in 1973 on a platform of lower taxation, individual rights, anti-bureacracy and free enterprise.
Similarly they are attempting to smear anti-Islamists here in the UK.
@ “Blue Dwarf”
Having lived here for 30 years you should know the local community leaders involved and know they have nothing to do with the “300 YOUNG MEN”/”HUNDREDS OF ‘VOLATILE’ PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE EAST LONDON MOSQUE”. (Sister Christine?!)
The East London Advertiser made the distinction between the peaceful march (thanks for the evidence of that in those other video clips you linked to) and the “MOB” outside the Mosque. Why can’t you? You put the link to their article.
All these videos and articles you are spattering this blog with – like the ‘EDL in Whitechapel’ video of them in the pub opposite the Royal London….and I’m attracting the EDL!
@anon comment 7
a). “Community Leader” is usually another word for a self-interested busy-body hoping to get their snout in the public trough.
b). None of the individuals you list above represent any “community” recognised by or representative of me.
c). I am sure that if in the aftermath of an EDL march an Asian shop was trashed or a woman in a niqab menaced, they would disassociate themselves as well. Would you accept that?
d). I am pleased the web-links and videoclips (AKA evidence) I’ve supplied distress you so much. Incidentally all I am doing is providing links. It is Ted’s WordPress settings that are throwing up the imbeded videos.
e) Officially last years March supposedly frightened off the EDL completely. So I was surprised to see the youtube video you refer to “EDL Leaving Whitechapel Pub”
What I see is a group of very young men (some of them children really) too young and dim-witted to realise in quite how much danger they are from the incroaching crowd. All I can say is, thank goodness the Police were there in force. Or we might of been looking at a real tradegy.
Blue Dwarf, what you say about these community leaders: “Reverend Alan Green (Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum), Rebecca Shaw (Rainbow Hamlets LGBT Group), Dilowar Khan (London Muslim Centre), Phil Sedler (Tower Hamlets Tenants Federation), Sister Christine Frost (Neighbours in Poplar), John McLoughlin (Tower Hamlets Unison), Alex Kenny (East London NUT) and Max Levitas, a veteran of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street”… being “self-interested busy-body hoping to get their snout in the public trough” is repulsive.
You also state that none of the individuals listed – in a press release from an organisation (get your authors and sources correct before spewing forth) “represent any “community” recognised by or representative of me.” No-one is saying that they represent a community that you recognise.
Given your contributions here, I think we can surmise that the community you recognise are the “very young men (some of them children really)” who were in the pub in Whitechapel. The sympathy and empathy you express for these “young and dimwitted” EDL members in the pub (“children” in a pub?) as opposed the similarly young men outside – as carefully detailed by the East London Advertiser – tells it all.
P.S. You say you are glad that you are distressing me – I didn’t say that I was distressed. But nice objective to have coming on here to distress people with your video nasties.
@anon (comment 7) If I valued your opinion of me Anon I would be upset. You keep on listing this group of individuals as if it is a magical mantra. The fact is that they chose to lend their names to a march organised by an organisation that has been shown to incite violent disorder
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-blame-antifascists-for-violence-1925038.html
and is led by a member of an extremist far left Party, Weyman Bennett of the Socialist Workers Party.
“….we have also seen groups of people, predominantly associated with the UAF, engaging in violent confrontation.
It is clear to me that a large number have attended today with the sole intention of committing disorder and their actions have been wholly unacceptable. Turning their anger onto police officers they acted with, at times, extreme violence and their actions led to injuries to police officers, protestors and members of the public.” – Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, speaking to the Bolton News 20 March 2011
Returning to the streets of Whitechapel, I repeat that a very nasty incident was narrowly avoided by the police presence. Also, that although the bulk of the EDL youths were in their late teens or early twenties, there were much younger youths among them. What would you estimate is the age of the boy at 0:55 seconds and the kid in the pink top at 1:32? Here is the clip again so you no excuse not to answer.
If you are still unclear what was going on, here is another YouTube video of the same stretch of the Whitechapel Road outside the Royal London Hospital as viewed from a passing bus. Riot or peaceful demonstration?
You will note that I originally responded to Ted Jeory’s post by asking why there had been no counter demonstration by “anti-fascists” against the radical Islamists of Hizb ut-Tahrir meeting at the Water Lily Centre in Whitechapel Road. I oppose the political creed of Islamism, created in the 1920’s by Hassan al Banna. I have no interest in fighting Islam or how individuals choose to worship God. Islamism is an extreme right-wing, reactionary, supremacist movement. It opposes Democracy, female equality, Gay Rights, Scientific Freedom, Trade Unionism. In its more extreme forms it sanctions Slavery, the murder of Christians, Jews and alleged apostates. It has all the features of a religiously inspired Fascist system. It is therefore hypocritical for United Against Fascism to oppose the BNP or the EDL and not Hizb, Islam4UK and Muslims Against Crusaders.
What do you make of what is going on in Waltham Forest?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3718799/London-suburb-put-under-Sharia-law.html
Blue Dwarf, just to end this and to clarify: the EDL were in Whitechapel 5 days before the “1500 strong march organised by Unite Against Fascism [which] passed off peacefully” (East London Advertiser) on Sunday 20 June:
EDL Go To Hell!
Posted on June 16, 2010 by whitechapelanarchist| 141 Comments
This evening, Tuesday 15th June, around 6pm roughly fifteen EDL were spotted drinking outside the Grave Maurice Pub next to whitechapel station. They had to be protected by police as within minutes locals descended down, led mainly by british asian lads, the EDL had to be rushed into the tube with the station doors being shut as a few hundred locals let them know what they thought about their presence……..
The rest of this account is here:
http://whitechapelanarchistgroup.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/edl-go-to-hell/