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6 Music, EDL & Democracy – 2010

6 Music, EDL & Democracy: On Saturday 22 May 2010 I began work outside the BBC with people protesting over the threatened closure of two popular radio networks, 6 Music and the Asian Network. I then covered a march through London by the far-right English Defence League. During the day I walked several times through Parliament Square and took a few pictures of the ‘Democracy Camp’ still there along with the longstanding Peace Camp.

Save BBC 6Music & Asian Network

Broadcasting House

Newspaper reports that the BBC might be planning to axe the digital music channel 6 Music stirred a huge campaign by supporters to save the radio station with #SaveBBC6Music trending on Twitter and a Facebook Group with nearly 180,000 members.

Radio 6 had been launched by the BBC in 2002 as a digital alternative music station and played a wide range of music including many genres largely marginalised by the more mainstream Radio 1 and Radio 2 – Wikipedia lists its output “pop, rock, dance, electronic, indie, hip-hop, R&B, punk, funk, grime, metal, soul, ska, house, reggae, jazz, blues, world, techno, experimental and many others“.

Around five months later “the BBC Trust announced that it was not convinced by the BBC Executive’s plans and that the station would not be closed.”

The very public campaign to save the station led to a significant growth in listeners and this continued, and by 2014 it was attracting more listeners than Radio 3.

The Asian Network which had begun on BBC local radio beofre being launched in 1989, and had later gone nationwide were also under threat. The BBC Trust also rejected plans to close the network but did cut its budget by 50%.

Save 6 Music & Asian Network

EDL In Patriot March in Central London

Westminster

The march through London to pay respect to the war dead at the Cenotaph and then hold a short rally at the Duke of York Steps was officially organised by ‘British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists’, but was largely if not entirely attended by those who had taken part in previous EDL marches, with many carrying EDL banners.

Unlike previous EDL marchers this was a peaceful march and there were few if any counter-demonstrations. The few hundred marchers included quite a few families and many carried St George flags.

Most here happy to be photographed when I met them outside a pub at the start of the march, many playing up for the cameras. And stewards quickly led away one man who seemed about to attack a press photographer.

Stewards also quickly dealt with a man who began an offensive chant about Allah, telling him the EDL was against such racist sentiments and also that the police had told them they would stop the march taking place if there were such racist chants.

There were loud chants against Sharia Law but also against ‘Muslim bombers’ a phrase that stigmatises all Muslims for the actions of a a few extremists which are not supported by the mass of the Muslim community.

The march set off noisily, but as it turned into Whitehall and approached the Cenotaph it became a silent tribute to British troops, which was followed by applause, with the chanting resuming as they came past Downing St, marching on through Trafalgar Square to Waterloo Place for the rally.

*This man had been cautioned by police for wearing this ‘England Till I Die’ t-shirt on the street*

On My London Diary I write more about the march and about some of the marchers I photographed who told me about police harassment and being refused entry to pubs for wearing England shirts. Most who spoke to me were also insistent that they were not racists and they were happy for Muslims to live here so long as they respected British traditions and fitted in with our way of life.

At the rally I was threatened by a few of the protesters who decided to try to prevent press photographers from working. I complained to a couple of the stewards, and one of them accompanied me as I took a few more pictures before leaving.

More at EDL Patriot March in London.

Democracy Camp Continues

Parliament Square

I walked through Parliament Square several times over the day and took a few pictures.

There wasn’t a great deal happening, but the Democracy Camp which had set up there on May Day was still there three weeks later, despite the huffing and puffing from Boris Johnson and others.

Although they claimed their action was supporting the long-term protest by Brian Haw and supporters who were under constant threat by the police and others, the Parliament Square Peace Campaign suspected the Democracy Camp of being promoted by the police.

Democracy Camp Continues

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Muslim Extremists March For Sharia Zones – 2011

Muslim Extremists March For Sharia Zones: Today Anjem Choudary is due to be sentenced after having been found guilty of directing and encouraging support for the terrorist organisation al-Muhajiroun banned in the UK in 2005. Choudary whose home is in Ilford could face a life sentence.

The prosecution came about after a joint investigation by MI5, Scotland Yard, the New York Police Department, and Canadian police collecting evidence. His home had been bugged and online events were monitored. Police had been conducting separate investigations into his activities in the UK, US and Canada and came together leading to his trial at Woolwich Crown Court where he and a follower were found guilty last week.

Choudary had been a student of Omar Bakri Muhammad and had helped form the Islamist al-Muhajiroun organisation in Britain in 1996. This was proscribed in the UK in 2005 following the London Bombings, but Choudary carried on his activities under groups with various other names, including Al Ghurabaa, proscribed in 2006, and Islam4UK, banned in 2010.

These groups carried out a number of controversial protests to gain wide media coverage, and the East London protest by Muslims Against Crusades on Saturday 30th July 2011 by around 70 men was outnumbered by the press covering it – including me.

This was one of quite a few events where I photographed Choudary, and it appeared to many of us that Choudary, if not actually encouraged by MI5 was certainly being allowed to continue his activities as a way the authorities could keep tag on Islamist activities in the UK.

I heard Choudary speaking in public and was sceptical about the claims he made about ‘Muslim Armies’ but a couple of years later ISIS made them reality. And in June 2014 or shortly after, “Choudary pledged allegiance to the Islamic State’s “caliphate,” and its “caliph” (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) “‘via Skype, text and phone’ during dinner at a restaurant in London.”

This was a step too far for the British state and in August 2015 he was charged under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for inviting support of a proscribed organisation and finally convicted in July 2016. He was sentenced to 5 years six months in prison.

He left prison in October 2018, but there were many conditions attached to his release and it was only in October 2021 that he was fully able to resume his campaigning online. The current conviction relates to his actions since then.

My London Diary has a long account of the march march from Leyton to Walthamstow calling for Sharia Zones by ‘Muslims Against Crusades’, calling for the setting up of Sharia Controlled Zones in the UK which ‘Islamic rules’ would be enforced by Muslims, along with many photographs.

Although the organisers had told the press there would be a thousand marchers, there were well under a hundred. And although the leaflet handed out by the marchers claimed support from a wide range of organisation, as I explained it was in fact “only supported by a very small circle of him and his fellow extremists.” Very few of the Muslims on the streets it went through showed support and rather more made clear that they were opposed.

My report also has some coverage of several small counter-demonstrations by the English Nationalist Alliance and other right-wing groups, some of which were stopped by police. As the march arrived for the final rally there were some offensive shouts by some ENA supporters but their protest was otherwise peaceful.

During the final rally there were some minor scuffles in a large crowd of Muslim youths as some objected to the speeches by Muslims Against Crusades, but police moved in quickly. Some photographers close to the scene had their cameras grabbed or were pushed as they tried to photograph what was happening, but I was some distance away.

Of course there were no Sharia Controlled Zones in London, just a few notices like these put up by this small group which had no effect. But my picture was widely pirated on at least 86 web sites around the world, used by right-wing extremists to spread the myth that such things existed. DCMA requests got some of them taken down, but they just appeared elsewhere.

Much more about the march at Muslim Extremists March For Sharia Zones.

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EDL Rally Supports Israel – 2010

EDL Rally Supports Israel: In 2010 the English Defence League (EDL) an extreme right-wing organisation founded in June 2009 was reaching the peak of its existence and several hundred came to a protest in Kensington to show their support of Israel.

The EDL’s support of Israel came from the anti-Muslim centre of their activities; the group was founded following their opposition to a protest at a homecoming parade in Luton by a small group of Muslim extremists against a regiment returning from Afghanistan, which was also opposed by Luton’s large Muslim community.

The EDL had invited right-wing US Rabbi Nachum Shifren, part of the ‘Tea Party’ movement from California to speak at the rally outside the Israeli Embassy. As I wrote at the time, “Although the EDL claim to be opposing the rise of fascism in their opposition to Muslim extremists, they have come to a very biased view over Israel and Palestine, and have been very effectively infiltrated by bigoted Zionists.“

The EDL gathered at a pub on Gloucester Road before their march to the Embassy, filling the pavement outside. There were a number of press photographers on the opposite side of the street watching them but I decided to cross the road and talked with and photograph Rabbi Schriffin. None of the other photographers followed me.

For some minutes before the start of the march I was able to talk with him and some of the EDL supporters and some were happy to be photographed, and even complimented me for my accurate reporting on earlier protests – while complaining bitterly about the media coverage they get. As I told them I always try to report objectively, while also making my own difference of opinion clear.

The press they got did reflect the behaviour of at least some of those at their protests, and if the EDL wanted to end the accusations of racism they needed to take more positive action against the kind of behaviour that makes them possible. But many of their members including leading figures had a long history of membership of right-wing racist groups, and it was clear that the claim they made “We do not support racism or intolerance of any kind” was simply window dressing.

The leaflet they handed out described themselves as “the knights of old, defending our great nation for the threat of Militant Islam” and said “All welcome no matter of colour, religion or sex” and there was at least some truth in that shown in the composition of those in the march, with certainly a number of women, some claiming to be gay but, search as I have, not a single black face in my pictures.

For once Unite Against Fascism failed to mobilise much effective opposition to this demonstration – and did not appear to have tried very hard to do so. On their web site I found the statement “UAF does not have a position on the question of Israel and Palestine – our members have many different views on this question. Instead, we unite around our common aim of opposing the rise of fascism.” And as I commented, “Perhaps on this occasion they felt that taking action might offend some of their Jewish supporters.”

Some of those Jewish supporters were there in the rather small crowd opposing the rally, and there was a more direct action by a young man in a black jacket and gloves who came and stood listening for a short while, who took out his water bottle, had a drink and then reached over and poured the rest of it over the amplifier before turning and running down the street.

The sound from the microphone cut immediately, and the people inside the pen burst into angry shouts. It took the police longer to react and by the time they were moving the man had escaped, probably disappearing into High Street Kensington to catch the tube. I’d also been taken by surprise and hadn’t managed to take his photograph. Or perhaps I’d been wondering whether I should…

Eventually the water was tipped out and the amplifier wiped dry and came back into some very crackly life. Police shut the stable door by moving everyone outside the pen away and that and the sound quality made it hard to hear much of Rabbi Shifren’s speech, some minutes of which were in Hebrew. But he made clear his opposition to Sharia Law and Muslim extremists and I think to any aspect of multiculturalism. And I think he also denied the Palestinians any right to exist in the land which had been given to Israel.

*Roberta Moore of EDL’s Jewish Division*

I went home rather than go on with the EDL to Speakers Corner, where they were apparently heavily heckled. Another photographer who was there told me “that a small group of EDL supporters had attacked a Muslim bookstall and the 11-year-old boy who was running it, and then turned on photographers for taking pictures of their actions.” His camera had been smashed into his face by an EDL supporter. Photographs on the web confirmed this story.

On My London Diary I wrote at some length about my own views on the EDL and the event as well as putting far more pictures than usual online which you can view at EDL Rally to Support Israel.