Gilligan revealed as anti-Muslim as he defends the EDL

It has been pointed out to me before that Andrew Gilligan has refused to criticise the English Defence League (EDL). As my email correspondent explained, in the week that his programme attacked the East London Mosque, the EDL responded by waving placards against them outside parliament. Enough reason there, surely, for the Telegraph's London correspondent to make even a passing mention? No.

On the day of the EDL protest, Ken Livingston said:

Andrew Gilligan, phoned me just before I came to this programme... And I said, 'Did you see what happened today in Parliament Square? Three hundred fascists and racists marched through there with banners saying "Ban the hijab" and "Close the East London Mosque".' He said, 'Oh, that's nothing to do with me.' And I said, 'It is. Because your paper and you pander to racism and Islamophobia.'...

... because of Andrew Gilligan's programme Muslims will be harassed and spat at, and perhaps some will be beaten, and Andrew Gilligan should be ashamed of himself."

Did that elicit any comment from Gilligan on the EDL? No. Gilligan has refused to condemn the EDL, or even to criticise it.

Not really a surprise, why should Gilligan alienate some of his biggest supporters? After all, they promoted his Dispatches programme on the front page of their website.

Gilligan's key role in the rise of the EDL has now been documented in a detailed academic study Islamophobia and anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK case studies. This insightful report exposes just how misleading Gilligan's reporting has been, and how it has fed into the EDL backlash against Muslims.

Of course, Gilligan has fired off the usual pathetic pieces in an attempt to deflect criticism by trying to undermine the report. His bluster has been taken apart once again at the superb blog Guy Debord's Cat, where the author has consistently shown Gilligan's numerous shortcomings in a long and compelling series.

And it is Gilligan's two blog pieces (so far) that have ended his silence on the EDL. His first piece appears to be a shoddy attempt to play down the suffering of Muslims from Islamophobic attacks. Well, he would, given that he is a leading Islamophobe. Revealingly, he refers to "the anti-Muslim frothings of the English Defence League". This, his first ever mention of the EDL, tries to trivialise the EDL as merely a vocal, rather than a physical, threat. But his admission that they are "anti-Muslim" is a damning indictment of his own views. The EDL, like Gilligan, Harry's Place and other bigots, tries to cover its prejudice under the guise of being anti-Islamist. Frankly, this is racist bullshit. Gilligan is letting slip here that really they are all anti-Muslim.

Do not think, though, that Gilligan is turning on the EDL here. Proof that he is in truth defending them came just a day later in his second piece:

Almost as stupid is the claim, earlier in the report, that the Dispatches investigation prompted an upsurge of “intimidation” in Tower Hamlets by the English Defence League. What actually happened is that fifteen members of the EDL paid a visit to a local pub, and an even smaller number subsequently came back to the same pub. A planned demonstration by the group never took place. To my knowledge, there has not been even one single incident of violence or intimidation against the East London Mosque as a result of my film; I’m quite sure the mosque would have let us all know if there had been.

Gilligan's shocking defence of the EDL, and his pretence that EDL attempts to reach the mosque were mere trips to the pub, is a scandalous reflection of the acceptance of anti-Muslim prejudice in the right-wing media.