Trial by Jeory

I’ve been asked to publish the following letter, signatories of which include Jim Fitzpatrick and the Quilliam Foundation.

UNITED PLATFORM AGAINST RACISM & FASCISM
Bangladesh Welfare Association
Shaheed Bhavan
39 Fournier Street. E1 6QE

We, the undersigned, call on the authorities to ban the proposed march by the English Defence League (EDL) in Tower Hamlets on Saturday 3 September. The EDL is a violent racist organisation that seeks to vilify communities and damage community relations. Its planned march is designed to whip up fear and incite violence.

We reject entirely the EDL and its racism and we don’t see why the people of Tower Hamlets should pay for its march of hate. There can be no excuse for this march of hate. It is not right for one or two thousand racists to bring fear and trouble into somebody else’s community. We have to stop the EDL from marching.

We are calling on the police and council to ask the Home Secretary to ban the march. In doing so we are standing up for all the people of Tower Hamlets, whatever their religious or racial background.

We have shown before that we can force the authorities to act. We need to stop the EDL from marching in Tower Hamlets in September.

We are proud of Tower Hamlets, a vibrant multiracial area, which has a long and proud history of resistance to racism & fascism. From Cable Street in the 1930s, to Brick Lane in the 1970s and to Millwall in the 1990s, the people of Tower Hamlets have come together to see off racism and fascism before. We will now stand united against the racist and extremist EDL.

We believe that everyone has the right to live in peace and without the fear of abuse or violence. We stand against all prejudice, whether it’s racism, anti Muslim racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia or extremism.

We oppose all extremism – from whatever quarter – and we recognise that extremism breeds extremism. We condemn the extremist EDL just as we condemn Islamist extremism. We say a plague on both their houses.

We believe that the people of Tower Hamlets should be allowed to live without the threat of violence and fear. This is why we are standing together against the hatred of the EDL. We believe in HOPE not hate. That is why we are calling on the authorities to ban the EDL march of hate.

Sam Tarry
Campaign Organiser, HOPE not hate

Mr Mohammed Hormuz Ali
President, Bangladesh Welfare Association

Nurul Islam
General Secretary, Bangladesh Welfare Association

Mr Sajjad Miah
Acting President, Brick Lane Mosque

Mr Mahmud A Rauf
President, Brick Lane Business Association

Mr Badrul Islam
Director, Centre for Citizenship and Development

Mr Amir Hussain
Chairperson, Tower Hamlets Apasenth

Mr Ansarul Haque
General Secretary, Collective of Bangladeshi School Governors.

Mr Gopal Das
General Secretary, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Gosthi

Mr Nurul Islam
General Secretary, Soytten Sen School of Performing Arts

Mr Shahriar Bin Ali
Joint Convenor, Bangladesh Youth Union

Ms Shamim Ara Begum
Convenor, Nari Digangta – an association of progressive Bangladeshi women

Syed Enamul Islam
Secretary, Pir Habib Memorial Foundation

Dr B B Chaudhuri, Nirmul Committee

Ansar Ahmed Ullah
Organising Secretary, Altab Ali Memorial Foundation

United Platform Against Racism & Extremism

Syed Nahas Pasha
Editor, Janomot

Belal Ahmed
President, Bangla Press Club

Nazim Chowdhury
Director, Betar Bangla

Maggie Bowden,
General Secretary, Liberation

Ghaffar Hussain
Quilliam Foundation

Mina Rahman
Chairperson
London Bangla Women’s Network

Murad Qureshi, AM

Leon Silver
Senior Warden & Honorary Officer: East London Central Synagogue, Steering Group Member: Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum

Alice Sielle
Belief in Bow

Women Against Fundamentalism

Amanda Sebestyen
Asylum Education & Legal Fund

Abu Musa Hasan
Journalist

Mohammed Emdadul Haque Chowdhury
Editor, Weekly Potrika

Soyful Alam
Acting Gen Secretary, Altab Ali Memorial Foundation

Selma James  
Global Women’s Strike

Councillor Peter Golds
Leader of the Conservative Group, London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Steve Silver, Journalist

Jim Fitzpatrick MP

Rumana Hashem
Visiting Lecturer and PhD Fellow, University of East London

Councillor Helal Uddin Abbas
Spitalfields & Banglatown

Dan Jones
Human Rights Worker     

Ahmed Nurul Tipu
President, Projonmo71, UK

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