EDL returns to Dudley for demo against "super-mosque"

A number of news outlets (Sunday Mirror, ITV News) report on the demonstration in Dudley by the English Defence League against plans to build a mosque in the town. The far right organisation which is opposed to what it has called a “super mosque”, descended on the town on Saturday with several hundred protestors attending, some travelling from as far as Colchester in Essex. The far right organisation announced its plans to hold a major demonstration in the town last December. The demo was called as Dudley Town Council approved plans for the mosque at a council meeting in November 2014 although the mosque faces several legal hurdles before building work can be started. This hasn’t deterred the far right organisation’s animosity to the prospect of a large mosque in Dudley.

Pre-demonstration reports suggested up to 2,000 far right protestors might attend but the Birmingham Mail put the figure of protestors on the day at around 600, with 50 anti-fascist protestors holding a counter-protest at the same time.

ITV News reports that police made 29 arrests on the day with 25 individuals later released without charge. One person has been charged with assaulting a police officer, two others face public order offences and one individual was detained in custody for a matter relating to another police force.

Jonathan Warren, of blog site Expose the BNP, reported on the EDL’s anti-mosque demo in Dudley in 2010 when far right protestors were heard chanting: “E, E, EDL’, ‘I’m English ’til I die’ and ‘Muslim bombers, off our streets’.”

Warren also heard chants such as “Allah, Allah, who the f*ck is Allah?” and “Allah is a paedo.”

He also heard EDL members utter the unfamiliar chant “If you build your f*cking Mosque we’ll burn it down” as they marched around the car park where the new mosque will stand.

BBC News quotes one EDL male protestor saying, “We are not violent, racist thugs, I am not a racist.”

“But I don’t want my children growing up in a country where Sharia law is allowed,” he added.

The Birmingham Mail quotes Keith Thomas of the EDL writers team who told the paper that the new mosque was a symbol of “creeping Sharia and step by step Islamification”.

The Express and Star earlier in the week noted the impact on traders in the town centre who were expected to board up shops ahead of the Saturday demo. The loss of business earnings and costs of policing EDL demonstrations, as well as the negative effects on community relations, are all concerns that have been raised by local tradesmen, police chief constables and local councillors across the country when faced with an impending EDL demonstration in their town or city.