Keep the racist EDL out of Tower Hamlets!

The so-called English Defence League want to bring their racist protests to Tower Hamlets, according to a report at the East London Advertiser. Their forebears have been here before, famously stopped in Cable Street as they targeted the Jewish community.

This is in the wake of an investigation by the Guardian which has uncovered what we always suspected - that the EDL is just a BNP clone, a racist subset with Muslims in their sights. In days gone by the racists of old, in the form of the National Front, were a constant menace in Tower Hamlets and a threat to anyone in the nascent Bangladeshi community. Gradually, though, they were driven from our borough. The BNP has no foothold here.

If they're allowed to march into Tower Hamlets, it would present a serious threat to peace in our community.

In a thoughtful reflection on the climate that has allowed he EDL to establish itself, Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer draw attention in Comment is Free to the demonisation of Muslims in sections of the media, in particular Muslims in Tower Hamlets. And they quote Peter Oborne who observed it had become "permissible to fabricate malicious falsehoods and therefore foment hatred against Muslims in a way which would be regarded as immoral and illegal if perpetrated against any other vulnerable section of society". I hope over at the Telegraph and the Express they are taking note.