Tuesday 15 September 2009

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

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