John Denham is right to condemn the English Defence League as an anti-Muslim hate group

John Denham, the secretary of state for communities, is right to compare anti-Muslim hate groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) to the fascists that marched against Jews in the 1930s.

The EDL has proved by its actions that it is an organisation of racist thugs intent on whipping up bigotry and hatred against Muslims in Britain. Photographs and video footage of EDL supporters taken in Birmingham earlier this month clearly shows them making Nazi "seig heil" salutes and chanting disgusting racist slogans.

The latest EDL attempt at intimidating Muslims comes today (Sunday 13 September) when the organisation attempts to disrupt the annual Al Quds Day demonstration in London. The Greater London Authority has disgracefully capitulated to EDL threats and handed London's Trafalgar Square over to its thugs.

Unite Against Fascism condemns the EDL and its affiliated groups and calls people to show solidarity with Muslims in Britain currently under sustained attack from racists, bigots and fascists.

As Ken Livingstone, chair of Unite Against Fascism and former mayor of London, said last week in response to the EDL's aborted march on Harrow Central Mosque: "If anyone were to call a demonstration outside a synagogue or church, this would rightly provoke a national outcry.

"There should be exactly the same response from the government, politicians, all religious faiths and the media to the call for a demonstration outside a mosque. The only possible meaning of this event is a protest against Muslims and Islam – a religion followed by more than a billion people in the world.

"People should wake up to the fact the protests outside mosques are taking us back to the fascism of the 1930s when fascist thugs marched against Jews and their places of worship. These demonstration should be condemned and banned on the grounds of blatant religious discrimination and a threat to public order."

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of UAF, added: "In the 1970s the National Front used to organise racist demonstrations against black people through 'anti-mugging' front groups. Today the EDL and other racist and fascist organisations use the issue of 'Islamic extremism' in exactly the same way.

"Nobody should be taken in by the EDL's pretence that these marches and rallies are not aimed at whipping up race hatred against Muslims and Asians. Their 'protests' are racist demos and we should not allow them to take place."

Article taken from ww.uaf.org.uk

Say no to the fascist BNP on Question Time

We are appalled by the BBC's decision to invite Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist British National Party, onto its flagship Question Time programme. Griffin is a noxious racist and neo-Nazi. He has a criminal conviction for incitement to racial hatred for publishing an antisemitic magazine that denied the Holocaust.

The BBC justifies its actions by claiming that the BNP should be treated just like any other party. But no other party has a "whites only" membership policy. No other party burns golliwogs at its "family festivals". No other party has a history of deep involvement in Nazi politics and supporters with a record of organising racist violence against minorities.

The BNP is not a democratic political party. It is a fascist organisation that should be shunned by wider civil society. As a publicly funded body, the BBC in particular has a duty to oppose racism. Black, Asian, Jewish and LGBT people pay the licence fee too. It is their rights to live free of hate that the BBC should be protecting, not those of BNP bigots.

Like all fascist organisations the BNP craves respectability and pretends to be democratic in order to further its real agenda of attacking democracy and spreading bigotry. By inviting Griffin onto Question Time the BBC is playing into the BNP's hands and thereby, however unintentionally, aiding the fascists.

We call on the BBC to stop rolling out the red carpet to racists and stop giving succour to the BNP by inviting its bigots on to our airwaves. The BBC should reverse its decision to invite Griffin onto Question Time – and start taking a robust stand against racism and fascism.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Sign this statement by sending an email marked "Question Time" to unite@ucu.org.uk
• Complain to the BBC by phoning 03700 100 222 or the BBC's online form
• Join the Facebook group protesting at the BBC decision
• Take the UAF petition round your workplace or community
• Make a donation to Unite Against Fascism