Vol. 73/No. 39      October 12, 2009

The SIOE had targeted a new mosque in the town, which they claimed would house a sharia law court, claims refuted by the mosque’s leaders. The rightists’ action was also intended to mark the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Unite Against Fascism called the counterdemonstration, which started gathering outside the mosque hours before the planned right-wing action, their numbers growing throughout the afternoon. Faced with the mass of trade unionists and youth from the surrounding areas, the rightist outfit called off its action. The few dozen of their supporters who showed up were heavily outnumbered.

Stop Islamisation of Europe originated in Denmark. Their aborted action in Harrow follows in the wake of similar actions called by another ultraright outfit, the English Defence League (EDL), whose actions in Birmingham in August and September were also met with counterdemonstrations.

The EDL was formed out of an anti-Muslim demonstration in May in Luton, 30 miles north of London. During the right-wing demonstration Asian businesses were attacked.

According to a statement on the outfit’s Web site, the anti-Muslim action was in response to a protest in March by Islamists at a homecoming event in the town for British soldiers returning from the war in Afghanistan. In early May a mosque in Luton was firebombed. At the end of August, hundreds of Asian youths in Luton protested following a rumor that the EDL was planning an action.

The EDL recruits from people who’ve been involved in fights at football matches. “You can’t win a fight without people like that,” an EDL leader in Oldham near Manchester told the local evening paper. EDL is planning an action in Manchester October 10. In an interview with the BBC another EDL leader said, “There are town centers now that are plagued by Islamic extremists… . Those are our town centers, and we want them back.” They urge their supporters to wear EDL uniforms—polo shirts with English and British flags and the slogan “No surrender to al-Qaeda” printed on them.

Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations told Sky News that nationalist government rhetoric, such as Gordon Brown’s “British jobs for British workers,” had fanned “a progressive increase in far-right politics” over the last eight years.

Taking advantage of the rightist action to clamp down more broadly on democratic rights, the Luton City Council and police August 20 got a three-month order from the Office of the Home Secretary prohibiting “any procession or march involving members or supporters of but not limited to the English Defence League” and some other groups in the borough of Luton.  
 
 
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