English Nationalist Alliance in Brighton

The English Nationalist Alliance or ENA is a tiny right-wing organisation formed by BNP Essex member Bill Baker, to unite members of groups like the BNP, NF and EDL.

The EDL predicted 5,000 people would support their Bradford protest on 28 Aug 2010 - in fact only 700 showed-up. So, where an earlier ENA demo in April had drawn an already low turnout of just 150 supporters to Brighton, 2 days after the Bradford defeat, ENA support shrunk even lower, down to just 40 people, with ENA morons giving Hitler salutes and waving EDL flags in Brighton.

The ENA Brighton demo wasn't the 1st time Bill Baker made a fool of himself. In Aug 2009 Bill Baker cancelled an EDL demo he was trying to organise in Harrow after it turned out he'd been lying about Harrow Mosque. The Harrow protest was rescheduled by Stephen Gash's group SIOE (Stephen Gash is a former EDL spokesman who supports Serbian mass-murderer and war criminal Radovan Karadzic). SIOE staged 2 protests in Harrow - the 1st attended by less than 40 people, the 2nd attended by less than 20, and the 2nd Harrow protest was such a shambles Stephen Gash turned up 90 minutes late for his own demo. Despite this, EDL plan to humiliate themselves again in Harrow in Jan 2011.

The EDL, BNP, ENA, NF and SIOE are all the same people, separated only by the different egos that compete for leadership of their stupid movement. All of them pretend to be patriotic, but the ideology they follow is based on GERMAN nationalism.

The ENA/EDL Brighton picture is available here.

Thanks to FightbackUK for the heads-up

Anti-Muslim groups protest in vain

Odious as they are, the Harrow mosque protests will make our community of Muslims and non-Muslims stronger

Sunday saw the return to Harrow of the English Defence League (EDL) and another group, Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE) for an anti-mosque demonstration. The last one was held three months ago to coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The groups were protesting against the building of an extension to Harrow Central Mosque, an extension that will include multi-purpose conference suites, a fitness centre, library, nursery, IT centre and a coffee shop all accessible to the public. The mosque has held open days for the local community, engaged in important local interfaith work and played its part in building good community relations. Which is why there was widespread support from both religious and secular leaders for the mosque and its work at its press conference on Tuesday.

Harrow mosque had extended an invitation to SIOE to discuss what their concerns were and to open up lines of communication. This offer was flatly rejected in favour of public grandstanding. SIOE's current position – as articulated by its spokesman on Comment is free – is that all Muslims are extremists and those that claim to be moderates are lying. It is not entirely clear how promoting this worldview without inciting hatred or violence is possible.

The EDL managed to muster 15 protestors and the SIOE another 15. Both came and left Harrow at different times. However, despite their farcical turnout, the very threat of their presence required a huge police response of 800 officers that will probably cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds. From the SIOE's point of view this is a low cost, asymmetric war of attrition. Their members simply turn up in their small numbers – or threaten to turn up – knowing full well the expense to the taxpayer and to community relations. Their calculation is that only a handful of young Muslims need to be provoked into overreacting for the headlines they seek. The fact that is often overlooked is that the mosque or "community elders" have as much control over these youths as non-Muslim "community elders" do over theirs. In the end, most young Muslims chose to vote with their feet and not to attend.

However, this kind of anti-Muslim bigotry has resulted in some interesting new dynamics. An attack on a mosque is an attack on a very sacred institution – as an attack on any place of worship would be. Muslim professionals who would otherwise not have been involved in mosque activities came forward to assist the mosque. In the past professionals have often been so disappointed with the competence of those managing the mosques that they have tended not to invest their time and expertise in them. Some mosque managers have also been quite content with this arrangement, running them on tribal lines, more suited to Pakistani villages than British cities. Given the external threat now directed at mosques and the need for them to raise their game in the public domain, there might now be a greater convergence between these two groups.

Sunday also saw a much welcome boost to interfaith relations with Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and non-faith leaders pledging support to the mosque. One journalist at the mosque on Sunday joked that he thought he'd turned up at the local synagogue given the numbers of Rabbis present. Some Jews, in particular, feel a wary sense of the risk that darker chapters of Europe's history might be repeated. This provided a powerful response to the SIOE who had come waving Israeli flags in order to provoke a response.

Will the anti-Muslim bigots come down to Harrow again? Possibly. They are part of a Europe-wide trend against its own minorities. However, so long as communities remain firm in their opposition to all forms of bigotry and extremism then, in the long run, it may make us all a bit stronger.

Comment is free

Harrow mosque shunned by Islamophobics over request for dialogue

Anti-Islam campaigners refused requests for a dialogue from Harrow Central Mosque at a rally today

Ajmal Masroor, a spokesman for the religious institution, crossed police lines to talk to affiliates of the English Defence League (EDL) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) at an anti-mosque rally, in Station Road. He invited representatives of the two groups to come into the mosque and discuss their objections to Muslim religion, but the protesters rejected the offer.

SIOE leader Stephen Gash said: “What's the point of me discussing with an Imam at the mosque. What we want is the debate with John Denham and the Home Office.”

Mr Masroor said: “An invitation was made to the groups but they've refused. We spoke to SIOE, extended the arm and invited them to the mosque and they refused. Stephen Gash said it was not worth his time to come and talk to us. As a community of people we have demonstrated we are united, we are not going to be hijacked by right wing fascist and racist groups. You are not going to be able to hijack [our] harmony and peaceful existence.”

Mahmood Awan, trustee of the mosque, said: “It's a shame that they are not prepared to have a dialogue. We could have tried to build bridges but they don't seem to want to do that. All they want is to come here and disrupt our community.”

Anti-fascists confronted the English Defence League and Stop Islamisation of Europe in a peaceful protest in the car park of Harrow Civic Centre, in Station Road. Members of the two organisations chanted slogans at each other from behind metal crowd control barriers and lines of police officers.

Mr Gash said: “I don't wish to be disruptive, especially around Christmas, but I say the only recourse available to us is the streets. Nobody will allow us to talk on TV.”

Paul Brown, of central London, an affiliate of EDL, said: “We are here to protest against the relentless march of Islam in Britain and across the world. It's been going on for centuries. People have been planning this. This is what Islam is all about. They go into areas and take over and crush everyone.”

Tony McNulty, MP for Harrow East, said: “They don't know what they are talking about. It's a protest fuelled by ignorance. It's a matter of profound despair to them that Harrow is such a united, multi-faith community.”

Harrow Times

A message from Harrow Central Mosque

Victory for the peace loving people of Harrow

Today’s demonstration by the Stop Islamisation of Europe and the English Defence League was in every measure a miserable defeat for the hate mongers and the Islamaphobes.

The Harrow Central Mosque is extremely grateful that people from so many backgrounds and faiths stood shoulder to shoulder in support of and in solidarity towards this great centre of peace and harmony. The Mosque would also like to express its grateful thanks to the youth of Harrow and its surrounding areas for heeding the call to not attend this event.

During the afternoon the Mosque extended an invitation to both the groups and at one stage even directly invited the leaders of EDL to have face to face and civilised constructive dialogue with Mosque representatives. Initially they agreed but then changed their minds and went home. However, the SIOE declined to accept the invitation point blank and the leader of this group, Stephen Gash, said ‘this will be a total waste of time and fruitless exercise’.

The Mosque is always ready to welcome all people regardless of faith or background and is proud of its well long standing track record to uphold the principles of a multicultural and cohesive society.

So today was a victory for the people of Harrow and defeat for the racists and the fascists. There is only message the Mosque is willing to give- this is our home; Britain is our country; British people are our people; and we will do everything for its well-being.

Harrow Central Mosque

EDL and SIOE opposed by Christians and Jews

Anti-Muslim groups SIOE and EDL say they have Jewish supporters, but leading members of the Jewish community have condemned the SIOE protest against Harrow Mosque, planned for Dec 13. Rabbis Kathleen Middleton, Frank Smith, Aaron Goldstein, Hillel Robles and Mike Hilton sent a letter supporting Harrow Mosque, saying SIOE use "outrageous lies" to try and divide Harrow's community. SIOE protests have also been condemned by Harrow's (Jewish) Tory councillor Jeremy Zeid, by the Jewish Chronicle newspaper and the Community Security Trust (who monitor racist activity on behalf of the Jewish community).

When SIOE re-scheduled a cancelled EDL protest against Harrow Mosque on Sept 11, SIOE used their protest to slander an entire community by false association with 9/11. On the day however, less than 15 EDL hooligans, half a dozen known BNP goons and lone SIOE activist Stephen Gash were opposed by over 1,000 Anti-Fascists.

Believing the police were protecting the same racists who'd fire-bombed Luton Mosque, a handful of anti-SIOE counter-protestors played into the hands of the SIOE by throwing stones and bottles at the police, before they were stopped by other Anti-Fascists and by Mosque stewards. Few TV reports showed that (despite alot of footage of people simply running around) the counter-protest had been overwhelmingly peaceful. BNP leafletting teams visited Harrow soon after, to try to capitalise on the problem SIOE attempted to create - proving the link between provocative right-wing protests and the BNP. To prove the link between SIOE and extremism once and for all however, SIOE also support the Serbian mass-murderer Radovan Karadzic.

In this video Harrow Mosque officials are seen meeting with local Hindu and Christian leaders, and inviting SIOE to visit the Mosque to discuss their grievances - let's see whether Stephen Gash has the courage to accept!

PLEASE COUNTER-PROTEST PEACEFULLY against the SIOE on Dec 13 (Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Mahajiroun etc please do what you asked your supporters to do and STAY AWAY).

BNPInfo

CST warns Jews against joining anti-Muslim demo

The Community Security Trust has urged the Jewish community not to lend their support to the group “Stop the Islamisation of Europe”.

SIOE have been canvassing support from British Jews to attend their forthcoming demonstration at Harrow mosque. Emails have been circulated by SIOE, including one sent to the Jewish Chronicle, asking for support. SIOE have urged Jews to bring Israeli flags to the demonstration on December 13, and have said their aim is to recruit 1,000 Jews to join the protest.

The group’s motto, according to their website, is “Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense”. A statement on their website declares: “If you do not attend this demonstration then you are prepared to see Israel wiped off the map. Vile antisemitism is being preached in mosques across the world and almost certainly the one in your neighbourhood.”

The CST has drawn attention to the Islamaphobic comments on SIOE’s website, and compared the group to the English Defence League, and the BNP’s Nick Griffin, who have attempted to gain support from Jews through pro-Israel and anti-Muslim statements.

The blog singled out a central image on the SIOE’s website [pictured, top-left], which shows a skull with blood dripping from its mouth on the front of a mosque, where the minaret and crescent moon and star symbol is also covered in blood. On its blog, the CST says: “This image tells us everything we need to know about SIOE and Islamophobia. If a Jew cannot understand why the image is racist, or hateful, or bigoted then they should try imagining it as a synagogue: with blood dripping from a Star of David; with blood dripping down the rabbi’s pulpit; and with blood dripping from the mouth of a skull that wears an Israeli army helmet.”

The CST emphasises that while the Jewish community should be concerned about extreme Islamist groups. Jews had a duty to stand up to prejudice and hatred

“The fact that Muslims are the current target simply means that it is Muslims who should be the recipients of anti-racist solidarity. Hatred, division, cycles of inter-communal violence, intimidation and polarisation feed the extremists on every side. They encourage social division and leave all minorities vulnerable. Anti-Muslim bigotry is a vital recruiting sergeant for both the far right, and its Islamist extremist counterparts.

“It generates votes for the BNP and, at the furthest ends of this political spectrum, it even provides the fuel for terrorism. British Jews should have no part of it.”

JC

Revealed: English Nazis plot to bring terror to streets of Scotland

A mob of English racists and neo-Nazis planning to invade Scotland can be exposed by the Sunday Mail today

The far-right trouble makers are planning to march in Glasgow under the banner of the Scottish Defence League near the country's biggest Mosque. Despite portraying themselves as Scots, the right-wingers - including senior BNP activists - will travel to Scotland from Birmingham, Luton, London and Carlisle.

The ragbag army of football hooligans, far-right activists and racist thugs want a confrontation with Scots Muslims. They have even started selling s20 Scottish Defence League polo shirts on eBay for marchers to wear. Organisers have admitted that previous marches have been attended by fascist thugs from Combat 18. They hope to take advantage of the heightened profile given to the far right from Nick Griffin's Question Time appearance.

A group calling themselves the Scottish Defence League made - then withdrew - an official application to stage a march on November 14 in Glasgow. Behind the scenes, they have been organising a huge demo for the city on that date - and last week told undercover Sunday Mail investigators the march was definitely on. Most of the marchers will come from England - mirroring an event in Swansea held by the Welsh Defence League which descended into chaos.

Those expected in Scotland include:

• Essex security boss and mum-of-five Leisha Brookes, who was stopped carrying a knuckle duster on a previous march.
• Anti-Islamic Carlisle-based businessman Stephen Gash, who helped organise an English Defence League protest in Harrow, Middlesex, which descended into violence.
• BNP activist Chris Renton, who launched websites for the Scottish and English Defence Leagues.
• Aston Villa fan Richard Price, whose Facebook page says he has done prison time. He has "England" tattooed on his bottom lip.
• West Lothian-based Scottish ex-squaddie Steve Ritchie, who has offered to provide transport for marchers on an internet site.

Senior police officers and politicians are privately concerned about the possibility of an illegal march and potential flare-ups with Muslims near Glasgow Central Mosque in the city's Gorbals area.

Brookes, 42, who runs SBK Security in Southend, said: "In Scotland, we will be demonstrating the strength of our support, which, across the UK, is growing at rate of almost 1000 a month. We reckon to have several hundred supporters in Scotland but it is a very big area, so much of it comes from cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh."

Gash, 56 said: "Glasgow could be huge, without a doubt. A lot of the different firms down here seem to have buried the hatchet and are sickened by the rising tide of Islam. Whether or not that is the case in Scotland, we will have to see. Glasgow may well be the biggest march yet. There will be a lot of English guys travelling up for the Glasgow march from all over the place - Bristol, Luton, Birmingham. A lot of the football firms like Aston Villa get involved. I have a lot on but I will be going to Glasgow - it's only 95 miles away from me. Recent EDL demonstrations in Birmingham and the one in Swansea were infiltrated by Combat 18. That's what caused most of the trouble."

Gash organises a group called Stop Islamisation Of Europe (SIOE) which was set up "with the single aim of preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe". He said: " I am proud of the development of the EDL and the WDL. I am delighted that they have started up, as they are really trying to get the message across."

Police are still investigating the Welsh Defence League march in Swansea eight days ago, when a man was arrested for a racially aggravated public order offence. Hundreds of anti-fascist campaigners confronted the rally and a massive police presence kept the two sides apart. Police are reviewing hours of CCTV and video footage to look for further offences.

Taha Idris, of Swansea Bay Racial Equality Council, said : "In Swansea, the vast majority of protesters were actually English and that will be the same in Glasgow. A lot of them had strong Birmingham accents. It was quite obvious that a lot of people had come from elsewhere for the rally. They are basically a rent-a-mob and a bunch of troublemakers. There are serious football hooligans attached to these people."

Simon Cressy, of anti-racist Searchlight magazine, said: "The EDL and BNP are basically the same enterprise. Publicly, both will deny that but it suits both to have Nick Griffin as a public face and these guys causing trouble on the streets. Brookes appeared to play an organising role in the Birmingham demonstration. She is friendly with underworld figures such as Dave Courtney, Carlton Leech and Mitch Pyle, son of the gangster Joey Pyle.

"Other prominent figures include Jeff Marsh, a 44-year-old convicted football hooligan from Barry, south Wales. Marsh is a Cardiff supporter and has been jailed three times for violence, including a two-year sentence for stabbing two Manchester United fans. Another organiser, Chris Renton is a BNP activist from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. Renton helped set up the EDL website. When his political links to the BNP emerged, the EDL publicly distanced themselves from him but he remains an important player behind the scenes.

"Gash is also well known and was with the EDL in Birmingham. He also arranged the Harrow protest, although he was arrested and removed from the area before it started."

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "There will not be an appropriately organised or licensed public procession. It is feasible that people will still turn up and that will be a policing matter."

An email was sent to the council from a man calling himself "Donald" of the English Defence League.He refused to disclose details of the organisers, stewarding or the march route and was turned down.

A group of trade unionists, political parties, anti-racist organisations and faith groups called Scotland United have organised a rally to celebrate multicultural Glasgow at noon on Saturday, November 14, at Glasgow Green.

Sunday Mail

Calls for Harrow mosque protest to be banned

A Harrow MP and former policing minister will ask the Home Secretary to ban an anti-Islam protest.

Tony McNulty (Lab/Harrow East) announced today he will hold an informal meeting with Alan Johnson this week to discuss possible routes to stopping a rally by Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). The protest is due to be held on December 13 outside Harrow Central Mosque, and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) intends to hold a counter demonstration.

But the move has sparked fears there will be violent scenes similar to those of SIOE's first Harrow rally, a month ago today, when members were met by angry crowds seeking to defend the religious institution.

The police say there are no powers to ban “static protests” that do not involve a march, and so do not believe the Christmas rally can be prevented.

Mr McNulty said: “The one different thing this time around, if they come again, is the experience of last time and the experience of last time shows very clearly that there will be the potential for serious disorder.”

After an initial meeting in the next seven days he plans further, more formal discussions, with Mr Johnson in the coming weeks. UAF clashed with the far right English Defence League (EDL) in Manchester yesterday, leading to more than 40 arrests. Ten people were arrested at a demonstration outside Harrow Central Mosque on September 11, including protest organiser Stephen Gash, who was detained to prevent a breach of the peace.

Mr McNutly's comments came as the borough's politicians gathered to show unity a month on from the rally with a unity walk starting at Holy Trinity Church, in High Street Wealdstone. A crowd helped by police cadets and led by Harrow mayor Councillor Eric Silver walked the borough's war memorial outside Harrow Civic Centre, in Station Road.

Cllr Silver said: “We've had people come to this borough to try to break it up. We live together, we work together and we play together.”

All three parties on Harrow Council expressed solidarity with the mosque in the run up to and during the September protest and re-stated their support today.

Councillor David Ashton, leader of the council and Tory group, said: “We still hope it won't happen but it's been threatened. It's the last thing we want to see in Harrow.”

Councillor Paul Scott (Lib Dem/Harrow Weald) was sceptical of claims by SIOE that it could raise 2,000 supporters, a figure that would dwarf its turn out in September. He said: “They haven't done it thus far. I'm just concerned that we shouldn't allow a very small group of people to hold us to ransom with exaggerations about what they can do.”

Councillor Bill Stephenson, leader of the Labour Group, backed Mr McNulty's calls for the demonstration to be banned. He said: “I think we have to take pro-active action and Tony's going to be approaching the Home Secretary. You can't let a small group of people go round the country causing mayhem. We don't want that in Harrow. There must be some way we can sort this out and prevent it because the potential for violence is there and if some people turn up next time someone could get seriously hurt. I know Mr Johnson's made some statements and we now want less talk and more action. We remain totally united in Harrow.”

Harrow Times

Harrow Mosque calls for 9/11 protest to be banned

Harrow Mosque has called for a 9/11 protest to be banned just days after fresh violence in Birmingham saw 90 arrests.

Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) is holding a rally outside the building, in Station Road, on Friday and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) supporters will hold their own counter-demonstration alongside it.

The English Defence League (EDL), which clashed with anti-fascists in Birmingham on Saturday, at one point advertised the event on its website. The rally is promoted on EDL's group on social networking website Facebook and there are fears the weekend's violence could be repeated in Harrow.

Haroon Sheikh, chairman of Harrow Central Mosque, said: “We would request that the local authority and the police try to put a stop to it. The concern we have is with a large congregation. It's very difficult to control what people would want to do on the day. We would have 200 to 300 people coming here for prayers on a Friday. Emotions will be high if it's provoked, but we will have the police and we will have stewards here.”

SIOE say they are not racist and will not tolerate racism at the rally, but describe themselves as Islamaphobic, saying it is “the height of common sense”. Both SIOE and UAF say they intend to protest peacefully.

The Harrow Times has asked the English Defence League (EDL) for clarification about whether their members will attend the protest and is awaiting a response. The Harrow Times has requested a response from Harrow Police and Harrow Council and is awaiting a reply.

Harrow Times