Anti-Islam influencer Valentina Gomez has been blocked from entering the UK by the Home Secretary.

She was due to speak at the Unite the Kingdom rally next month organised by Tommy Robinson, and had been given permission to enter via a UK electronic travel authorisation (ETA), according to her X account.

But after a backlash from MPs and campaign groups, the Government has intervened because her presence would not be conducive to the public good, it is understood.

Shabana Mahmood used the same justification for blocking rapper Kanye West from entering earlier this month.

The Gold Digger rapper, now known as Ye, has used Nazi imagery and faced accusations of antisemitism.

Ms Gomez was excluded from the UK on the grounds that the democratic right to expression does not extend to promoting hatred and extremism, it understood.

The Home Secretary has the power to cancel a person’s permission to enter or stay in the UK.

US-based Ms Gomez reportedly gained notoriety through a series of anti-Islam stunts including burning a copy of the Koran and vowing to rid Texas of the religion if she was in power.

Last week, Homelessness charity Centrepoint said it had cut ties with Sharon Osbourne after she expressed support for the Unite the Kingdom rally on May 16.

Its previous protest in September, which Ms Gomez is said to have spoken at, was attended by between 110,000 and 150,000 people.

A former soldier who made Facebook posts referring to “civil war” in the aftermath of the Southport attacks has been jailed for two years.

Daffron Williams, 40, who served on tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, previously pleaded guilty to a charge of publishing material likely to stir up racial hatred relating to public posts made between July 19 and August 11.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the posts, made before and after three girls were fatally stabbed at a dance class on July 29, included Williams describing Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as a “f***ing hero”.

In one post, the day after the incident in Southport, Williams wrote: “Civil war is here. The only thing that’s missing is bullets. That’s the next step.”

The court heard Williams, of Tonypandy, south Wales, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relating to his time in the army, during which he served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the Recorder of Cardiff, told Williams that there had been “serious public disorder” following the Southport attacks.

She said: “It was on July 31 this year that South Wales Police received complaints about your Facebook account.

“Your Facebook profile was an open profile, which means any member of the public, anywhere in the country and the world, could view your profile and see your comments.”

The judge said Williams had posted a number of “racist comments” before the Southport incident and the disorder that followed.

Significant comments included Williams posting “Let’s just do something FFS” and “Civil war is here, the only thing that’s missing is bullets, that’s the next step”, she said.

Williams was arrested on August 11 and apologised when shown the Facebook posts, which he told police he regretted, the court heard.

Considering evidence about Williams’ PTSD, the judge said it was a mitigating factor for sentence, but added: “You knew exactly what you were doing, your posts were intentional.”

References submitted to the court on Williams’ behalf made clear he served his community as well as his country and had organised charity events, the judge told him.

Judge Lloyd-Clarke added: “I accept you have strong personal mitigation but given your encouragement to others to act – your references to civil war and to bullets – I am satisfied this offending is so serious that only custody is sufficient.”

Prosecuting, Alex Orndal said Williams had pleaded guilty to the charge against him when he appeared before Cardiff Magistrates’ Court in August and had been in custody since then.

In one Facebook comment, Williams said: “I am racist as f***, only to those who sap the life out of society and disrespect culture. Our future as British is so uncertain it is unreal.”

On July 24, he wrote: “Come on guys, it is time to stand up. Everything our ancestors, grandparents and parents fought for is ruined. Let’s do something.”

Four days later, Williams posted images from a Tommy Robinson rally in London, which he attended on July 27.

He wrote: “If that level of support continues, we will win our freedom back. That was too big to be called a racist protest.”

Williams added: “I have seen today they are trying to put Tommy Robinson in jail. God bless Tommy Robinson, f***ing hero.”

Mr Orndal told the court how Williams also posted two AI generated images following the Southport incident.

Representing Williams, John Allchurch said his client had been diagnosed with PTSD from serving as a soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The defendant experienced multiple traumatic events while in the army between 2004 and 2011,” Mr Allchurch said.

“He witnessed close comrades being brutally killed, as well as the defendant himself having to take action against enemy combatants.”

Mr Allchurch said Williams had experienced a recent deterioration in his mental health, linked to “combat training and traumatic experiences when a serving soldier and exposure to far right material on the internet”.

“The defendant is a man who has supported his country in the most difficult and trying of circumstances which has left him suffering with a mental disorder,” he added.

Read More: Civil war, a note of caution about the counter-Jihadists and their Muhammad cartoons exhibition

Political activist Tommy Robinson will miss his own planned march for thousands of people after being remanded into custody by police.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court following the airing of a film at a protest in central London.

He attended Folkestone Police station on Friday where he was separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone pin to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said.

Robinson is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for a two-day hearing concerning allegations he breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

Supporters of Robinson are due to hold a demonstration on Saturday, which is expected to be met with a counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism.

The Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police are due to be supported by officers from other forces across the country as the Met said there will be a “significant police presence” to ensure the two groups are kept apart.

READ MORE: Why did Tommy Robinson move from the EDL to Pegida?

Tommy Robinson faces a wait to find out whether he has won or lost a libel case brought against him by a Syrian boy who was filmed being attacked at school.

The English Defence League founder – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – is being sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was recorded being bullied in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.

Shortly after the film went viral, Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos, which were viewed by nearly one million people, that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

The 38-year-old also claimed Jamal “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies.

At a four-day trial at the High Court in April, Jamal’s lawyers said that Robinson’s comments had “a devastating effect” on the teenager and his family, who had come to the UK as refugees from Homs in Syria.

Catrin Evans QC described Robinson as “a well-known extreme-right advocate” with an anti-Muslim agenda who used social media to spread his extremist views.

Ms Evans said Robinson’s comments led to Jamal “facing death threats and extremist agitation” and that if the teenager wins the claim he should receive damages between £150,000 and £190,000.

Throughout the trial Robinson maintained he was an independent journalist, telling the court: “The media simply had zero interest in the other side of this story, the uncomfortable truth.”

Robinson claimed to have “uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour” by Jamal and defended the comments as substantially true.

He said that, with people donating nearly £160,000 to a GoFundMe page set up for the claimant, he believed it was important for people to be given a “balanced view”.

Robinson, who represented himself, added: “I only reported what I was told. That is all I’m doing here in this court, looking for the truth.”

The trial also heard evidence from Bailey McLaren, the boy shown pushing Jamal to the ground and pouring water over him in the widely shared video, who denied being racist or a bully.

Robinson continued: “Almondbury Community School has its failings for sure, but racism and racist bullying was not one of them.”

He added: “Just because (Jamal) might have been a victim does not automatically mean he himself couldn’t be a nasty, foul-mouthed and often violent young person, particularly against girls and smaller, younger boys.”

Mr Justice Nicklin was due to hand down his written judgment on Monday; however, the ruling has now been postponed.

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson has been arrested after a fight broke out at a holiday park, it has been reported.

The Sun said on Monday that 37-year-old Robinson got into a row with another man in the pool at Woburn Forest Center Parcs in Bedfordshire.

Witnesses claimed that Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, confronted another man before punching him in the face, it added.

Bedfordshire Police confirmed that officers were called to reports of an altercation between two men at the holiday park at around 1.10pm on Sunday.

A spokesman added: “One man sustained an injury to his face, and received first aid at the scene.

“A 37-year-old man from Bedford was arrested on suspicion of common assault and has been bailed until April 2. An investigation is ongoing.”

A Center Parcs spokesman confirmed that police attended an incident at Center Parcs Woburn Forest on Sunday afternoon.

We are proud to launch the following report, which highlights the trajectory of the Democratic Football Lads alliance, offshoot groups and the ongoing engagement with anti-Muslim and radical far right movements in the United Kingdom.

The report has been authored for Faith Matters by two leading lights in this area of work, Dr Matthew Feldman and Dr William Allchorn.

This report appears a decade after the emergence of the English Defence League (EDL), a street movement that has changed the face of radical right politics in Britain.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Key points from this report include:

  *   A number of key supporters of the D/FLA, such as ‘Tommy Robinson’, rose to national prominence through these new street movements, which include not only the ‘defence leagues’ but the ‘Infidels’, Pegida UK and now the D/FLA.

  *   The D/FLA is on the way to becoming a fully-fledged radical right movement through its overwhelming focus Islam and consistent engagement with anti-Muslim prejudice. Yet the other issues in which it is engaged (such as combating homelessness) have staved off the ‘Far Right’ label to date, but 2019 will be a pivotal year for the group.

  *   The immediate stimulus for the formation of the Football Lads Alliance clearly emerged in reaction to several UK-based ISIS-inspired terror attacks that occurred from March to June 2017.

  *   Organisationally separate from the established UK Radical Right, the D/FLA can be more fruitfully aligned with the nationalistic and anti-establishment concerns of working-class football casuals in the UK.

  *   Since the FLA-DFLA splinter in April 2018, however, the rhetoric and group of actors within this new protest movement have seen the group move onto anti-Islam and anti-Muslim issues more customarily associated with the UK Far Right.

  *   At the start of 2019, the direction of the DFLA looked unclear – it is however certain that the DFLA may yet prove to be another incubator group for the Far Right, like the defence leagues and other anti-Muslim groups before it.

We are launching this report on Rebel Media and its influence online in a world where click-bait content, conspiracy theories and untruths become fact in the minds of some.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

This report, entitled ‘Rebel Media – a platform promoting division, white nationalism and fear mongering‘ highlights the following. Key points include the following:

• Ezra Levant has made a career out of using inflammatory language to gain audiences. He is the founder of Rebel Media and he has previously accused Gypsies of being “rapists, drug-dealers, thugs and murderers”.
• Former contributors on the payroll of Rebel Media have included Tommy Robinson, Lauren Southern, Katie Hopkins and Paul Joseph Watson. They are notorious for their anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-migrant views as well as promoting views of a clash of cultures between the West and the East.
• Central to Rebel Media’s message is the platforming of far right ideology, many would identify as ‘counter-Jihadi’ and with slants that seek to portray a world view of ‘them and us’ – with Muslims in Europe being viewed as ‘them’.
• There are three heavily emphasized themes that make up Rebel Media’s output. These include, white nationalism, the rejection of ‘political correctness’ and its criticisms of Islam.
• It has 1.156 million subscribers on You Tube and 169,000 plus Facebook followers. It also has 161,000 Twitter followers meaning that it has a substantial online reach that can influence people across national boundaries.
• Groups like Rebel Media have successfully tapped into a wellspring of discontent and unease, ramping up fears that white people are facing a rapid decline managed by elitist institutions on the side of minorities and ‘homosexuals’ and by using immigration as a tool against white people.
• Rebel Media essentially believe that there is an Islamist infiltration through increased number of Muslim migrants.
• Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel Media, was investigated for possible contempt of court charges for filming inside the Old Bailey in September 2018. The investigation was subsequently discontinued. He was filming Tommy Robinson during his trial for recording a short social media film outside Leeds Crown Court, which was hearing a grooming trial at the time.
• Two former ‘Rebel’ staffers have suggested that Rebel Media raises over $1,000,000 dollars in subscriptions per annum. It also received a $2 million payment from the anti-Muslim think tank, the Middle East Forum.
• It continues, like Infowars, to promote a view of white victimisation in a global world where liberal elites are conspiring against them.

The author of the report, Rabbil Sikdar said:

“Much more work needs to be done to counter the fake news around Muslims and the insinuation that building mosques or having halal-certified food amounts to a ‘Muslim takeover’. It alludes to a soft power approach by Islamists. People who buy into this false narrative are then likelier to protest against Islamic institutions like mosques and faith schools or call for fewer Muslims, or even support authoritarian measures against them. Rebel Media are essentially existing as a platform for the spread of fear and hate, and all their contributors work on this line. They have essentially globalised hate and we should be really concerned by that”.

A man who drove a van into Muslim worshippers outside a mosque last June was motivated by deadly Islamist attacks in Britain and an obsession with a television account of Muslim men who targeted white girls, a London court heard on Monday.

Darren Osborne, 48, also lambasted politicians, calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan a disgrace and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a “terrorist sympathiser”, prosecutor Jonathan Rees said, quoting from a note he said Osborne left in the van.

The note described Muslim men as rapists, “feral” and “in-bred” and when he was detained after the attack, Osborne said: “At least I had a go”, Rees told Woolwich Crown Court.

Osborne is accused of murdering Makram Ali, 51, a father of six who came to Britain from Bangladesh aged 10, and the attempted murder of other worshippers as they left a mosque in Finsbury Park in north London after late-night Ramadan prayers.

Osborne has denied the accusations.

“The evidence establishes that the defendant was trying to kill as many of the group as possible,” Rees told jurors. “The prosecution say that the note and the comments he made after his detention establish that this act of extreme violence was, indeed, an act of terrorism, designed to influence government and intimidate the Muslim community.”

The incident occurred just weeks after three Islamists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a knife rampage, killing eight.

That attack came the month after a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester killed 22 people. In March another Islamic State-inspired attacker killed five people by driving a car into passers-by on London’s Westminster Bridge and then stabbing to death a police officer in the grounds of parliament.

Rees said Osborne hired a van and drove to London from his home in Cardiff. After a plan to attack an anti-Israel march failed, Osborne drove around seeking alternative targets.

He is accused of ramming the crowd at Finsbury Park as worshippers helped Ali who he had earlier become unwell.

The court was told Osborne, who had never previously openly expressed racist opinions, had become obsessed with Muslims in the weeks before the attack after watching a BBC television drama “Three Girls”, based on true stories of victims of child sex gangs comprised mainly of British Pakistani men.

Rees said Osborne searched online for material related to the show, some of which was connected to far-right groups and Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First.

One of Fransen’s messages was re-tweeted by U.S. President Donald Trump in November.

Two days before the attack, Osborne told a serving soldier in a pub in Cardiff: “I’m going to kill all the Muslims”, the jurors were told.

Rees said Osborne’s former partner Sarah Andrews described the father of four as a loner and a functioning alcoholic with an unpredictable temperament who took medication for depression.

“With the benefit of hindsight, she describes him as a ticking time-bomb,” the prosecutor said.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.

This October marks two years since Tommy Robinson departed from the English Defence League (EDL). The Quilliam Foundation had called it “a huge success for community relations in the United Kingdom” and urged others, within far-right and Islamist circles to follow suit. Their staff “facilitated” both Robinson’s departure, and that of the EDL’s co-founder, Kevin Carroll. Quilliam had also offered both men education on Islam and training in lobbying.

Robinson aimed to tackle Islamist ideologies “not with violence but with better, democratic ideas”. He later told BBC Radio 5’s Nicky Campbell “I want to lead the revolution against Islamist ideology, I don’t want to lead the revolution against Muslims“.

When asked if he had regrets, he replied “I apologise if what I have said and represented has not resonated individually with Muslims”.

Beyond these pristine, mineralised and rehearsed statements, the cracks sat in plain sight.

Days before the announcement, Robinson’s Twitter feed continued to pump out anti-Islam content. Two days before Quilliam’s press conference Robinson had tweeted “Muslims created Islamophobia themselves… Go figure!!! They don’t challenge the extremists so we will!!!” Days earlier he tweeted that “Global war/holocaust on Christians… We all know it’s #Islam fueling it…“

Robinson retweeted an EDL endorsement on October 7 2013. Before that, Robinson had failed to intimidate the editor of the anti-far-right website EDL News by posting photos of an unconnected individual’s house on Twitter.

In the subsequent media fallout he remained coy about whether his views had changed. He reiterated to Jeremy Paxman that mosques in the UK must curb the influence of “preachers of hate” and “an end to Islamic immigration until the problem is solved“.

Robinson continued in his refusal to denounce past statements that included opposition to the construction of new mosques “because they preach homophobia and antisemitism“.

He often positioned himself as the authentic and marginalised working-class voice. Robinson exploited social marginalisation and alienation to push negative ideas about Islam and Muslims. Yet, the most active counter-voices to the EDL came from working-class, multicultural communities. Nor did Robinson apologise for the financial strain EDL marches brought upon the very communities he claimed to represent.

Two key Islamophobic ideologues Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller disowned Robinson. Then had a change of heart after “Tommy Robinson has written to us emphasizing that he has not changed his positions”. Both individuals are still banned from entering the UK. Geller later broke off links with Robinson in December 2013.

Jonathan Russell, political liaison officer at the Quilliam Foundation, wrote on October 28 2013: “It might sound surprising, but Tommy Robinson and the senior members of the Quilliam Foundation have something in common: they decided to walk away from extremism“. The comment was made in good faith with some trust in Robinson. That trust was to be trampled upon.

Robinson has always refuted the position that he has turned away from his past. His departure was contingent on ‘infiltration’ from extreme far-right elements and a rejection of street protests. He has never considered himself a ‘former extremist’. A position he reinforced last month when he tweeted to journalist Mehdi Hasan “I didn’t need de radicalising, I’ve been right all along“.

For Robinson, the EDL represented the best and worst of people he had met. Deep down though, even if he will not admit it, the EDL had hit a glass ceiling. Only once had the movement attracted more than 2,000 people to a single protest – that happened in Robinson’s hometown of Luton and it brought together Defence League and other far-right factions from across Europe in 2011.

In 2012, a YouGov poll found that 53 per cent of the British public considered the EDL a racist organisation. A vast majority (77 per cent) of the 1,282 sample would never join the organisation.

In response to Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder in Woolwich, the EDL tweeted “EDL leader Tommy Robinson on way to Woolwich now, Take to the streets peeps ENOUGH IS ENOUGH“. That call to arms created a groundswell of social media interest. And brought thousands of new Facebook likes. On a street level, around 1,000 supporters attended their Downing Street protest on May 27 2013. Two days earlier, between 1,500 and 2,000 supporters attended the EDL’s rally in Newcastle. A month later and the march in Tower Hamlets only attracted around 500 supporters. In spite of their exploitation of a national tragedy, the EDL could not replicate its rising online support on the streets. This does not, however, seek to downplay how the EDL fosters hostility and hatred online or at protests.

Academics like Elisabeth Ivarsflaten theorised that some far-right groups are unable to fight off accusations of racism because ‘their history provides no evidence to support such a contention’. The EDL failed to offer a positive legacy to attract better educated and middle-class members of society who otherwise are put off by the EDL’s history of hooliganism and violence. Anxieties towards Muslims are mainstream yet it was beyond Robinson’s reach in the EDL. A point confirmed by an admin on Robinson’s Facebook page who replied to a comment about Pegida in February “why walk with the EDL? you wont get majority of UK with you. You need to be like Germany and get middle class with you. Admin 2”.

As Robinson mused on October 2 2013: “The biggest decision I have to make is how to evolve , how to use this voice we have created so it is taken more seriously“.

Speculation grew that this evolution would come in the form of a think tank. In January 2014, Robinson started his 18 month sentence for mortgage fraud.

Before entering prison, it emerged that a Northumberland school had cancelled Tommy Robinson’s visit. He was due to visit GCSE and A-level religious education classes with Dr Usama Hasan of the Quilliam Foundation.

A month later and it emerged that Maajid Nawaz, the Quilliam Foundation’s founding chairman, had written to a senior Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) official in October 2013, requesting government money to ween Robinson away from dependence on EDL donors. That funding did not materialise as Nawaz would later tweet to journalist Sunny Hundal “we applied for programme to support his personal change,distinct from leaving the group. If approved, may have yielded results”.

Robinson was released in June under licence but in October 2014 he was recalled to prison. He spoke at the Oxford Union a month later.

In a December 2014 interview, Robinson hinted at a possible return to the EDL. He also explained why he was voting Ukip, and warned of an impending civil war between Muslims and non-Muslims.

When asked if saw a future with the EDL last March, Robinson responded “I see EDL doing well and I am certainly open to it“.

The Dudley election scandal raised further questions about Robinson’s EDL links. Afzal Amin had allegedly plotted to win votes by stopping a fake EDL protest. Present in the meeting was Tommy Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes.

In exchange for their support, Amin promised to be an “unshakeable” ally for the EDL in parliament if elected. The Conservative Party later suspended Amin.

One of the terms of Robinson’s early release from prison included no contact with the EDL until the end of his original sentence. If that meeting had any influence on the decision to recall Robinson to prison remains unclear. Robinson then found himself under arrest again in August.

Free from prison and it seems that Robinson’s focus is now with Pegida. But this is nothing new as Robinson endorsed the movement last January. He confirmed that an associate and former member of the EDL had flown to Germany to meet with the group. In September his Facebook page promoted a Pegida rally in London.

Earlier this month, Robinson travelled to the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands to speak at a Pegida rally. He was unapologetic about forming the EDL and told the crowd: “I am proud of forming a resistance movement in my own country to the Islamisation of my town and country”.

Robinson continued “Do I think we should go back to the street demonstrations that we had with the EDL? No. But I think the time has come to unite across Europe because we have to save our culture.”

A week later and Robinson spoke at Pegida’s anniversary rally in Dresden – where an estimated 40,000 people attended. Robinson again justified the necessity of Defence Leagues:

“Though I am no longer involved with the English Defence League I know that since almost the beginning of its existence many in Germany have supported our efforts to speak the truth about Islam.  Even last week members of the German Defence League travelled 10 hours to Aylesbury to join the shout out against Muslim rape gangs that have proliferated in our beautiful country.  I salute those determined GDL members!

Defence Leagues throughout Europe are necessary because Governments and Bureaucracies refuse to listen to the fears and concerns of the vast majority of the people.  These Governments and Bureaucracies need help in getting their priorities right!”

Robinson had shared a platform with a man who joked about placing Muslims in concentration camps.

His social media feeds continue to endorse the UK branch of the Pegida movement. A movement not plagued with the legacy of street thuggery.

Other tweets continue to push Islamophobic conspiracies. Or mythologise Muslims as rapists and paedophiles. On Facebook he posted “Real refugees would be happy to be SAFE in any European country. These Muslims are taking the piss making demands & rioting over it”.

Amid unproductive university bans Robinson also found time to speak at Harrow School on October 13.

Quitting the EDL helped Tommy Robinson find new and greater platforms to spread his unrepentant views. Some individuals are sincere in their efforts to change their views; but from the start Robinson has not.

The post Why did Tommy Robison move from the EDL to Pegida? appeared first on Religious Reader.

What Draws People of Faith to Right Wing Organisations & What Effects Does the EDL Have on Interfaith Relations?

Key findings of the report include:

• EDL attempts to recruit among faith communities
• Christian leaders should publicly stand up to EDL
• UK government should examine group’s international funding
• Jewish Defence League should be banned

Christian organisations should be doing far more to combat the appeal of far-right groups such as the English Defence League (EDL), according to counter-extremism organisation, Faith Matters.

The comments from Faith Matters coincides with the launch of research into the appeal of the EDL among faith communities, particularly among a small element of Christian, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu figures.

“Christian institutions on a national level have not been robust in condemning the EDL,” said Faith Matters’ director, Fiyaz Mughal OBE. “There is no national voice from the Church of England for example, universally condemning the actions of the EDL despite the fact the EDL disrupts and attempts to divide Christian and Muslim communities. Why?”

Mughal also said that the UK authorities need to examine how hate groups such as the EDL, which have the capacity to cause huge disruption on our streets, receive international funding.

“Links with Pamella Geller’s Stop the Islamization of America campaign and the ability to raise funds from the US need to be put under the spotlight,” he said. “People in the US promoting street-based social unrest in the UK by donating to the EDL is simply not on.”

Main Findings

• The EDL uses mainly Christian symbolism in its promotion and publicity material,
• Some within faith communities believe that by allying with the EDL they can marginalise and stigmatise Muslims,
• Building community resilience against such hate is vital – anti-hate groups in other faith communities, such as the Luton Faiths Forum, Community Security Trust, the Turban Campaign and Sikhs Against the EDL, should be more fully supported,
• The UK government needs to look at how groups such as the EDL are financed internationally, via a network of supporters in the ‘counter jihadist’ network (particularly the USA),
• The Jewish Defence League needs to be effectively outlawed in the UK for inciting extreme hatred against Muslims.