From the BBC:
At least 1,000 people gathered outside Harrow Central Mosque as activists from Stop Islamification of Europe* - a group associated with the EDL - planned a demonstration there. The group said they intended to hold a peaceful protest against the building of a five-storey mosque next to the Harrow Central Mosque.
Local Muslims and members of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) confronted the protesters, saying they had come to "defend the mosque". Eyewitnesses say members of the anti-Islam group were chased away by a large group of young Muslims - a minority of whom then turned on the police. Bricks, bottles and firecrackers were thrown at police officers, who were wearing riot gear.
Nine people were arrested for possession of offensive weapons including a hammer, a chisel and bottles of bleach. Another person was arrested at the scene to prevent a breach of the peace, but he was released soon after, police said.
If you take that excerpt at face value, it strongly suggests that the UAF and the 'young Muslims' caused most of the trouble. As the article does not say that "nine right-wing protestors were arrested" I strongly suspect that those arrested were mainly from the UAF or 'young Muslims' side of things.
But JuliaM is good at cross referencing different reports and working all this out, so I'll see what she has to say.
* SIOE's slogan is "Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense" which sounds good to me!
Once I dipt into the future
14 hours ago
4 comments:
In the other BBC article Ten arrested over mosque protest it specifically names Stephen Gash, from SIOE, as one of the arrested which strengthens the inference that the other 9 were not from that side of the disturbance.
In fact about 6 seconds into the video on that page a man can be clearly heard telling the UAF side of the proceedings to "stop throwing the rocks" as the man behind him in the blue t-shirt and black gilet throws another one.
A bit Monty Python .. .. ..
BBC London's reporting of this at 6:30 last night was very odd. By the end of the piece I didn't have a clue what was going on as they refused to show any rioters, whilst taking about them incessantly; they then they cut away to an EDF spokesman who was given a hard time. I presumed we were being encouraged to infer that it was the EDF that was rioting but wasn't sure.
The other thing about this story is the way tha Islam has become a race rather than a belief system. This allows the clinching argument of "racist" to be applied and so killing all discussion of the story and the EDF's claims.
I like the bottles of bleach.
Yes, leave us alone and keep us safe from Islam
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