TIMES ONLINE: John Denham has spoken out against anti-Islamics for trying to provoke violence in Britain's streets.
The communites secretary spoke about yesterday's clashes involving nationalists and Muslims at a London mosque and drew comparisons with the anti-Semitic marches of the 1930s, led by Oswald Mosley's 'blackshirts' and the British Union of Fascists. He said the anti-Islamics were using similar tactics to incite violence and while he qualified that these events were not on the same scale as British fascism of the last century, he said they needed to be taken seriously.
Ten people were arrested yesterday after skirmishes broke out between police and Muslim youths, when large crowds gathered to defend a mosque that had been targeted by anti-Islam campaigners in Harrow, north west London.
The Stop Islamification of Europe (SIOE) and English Defence League (EDL) had threatened to stage a rally outside the Harrow Central mosque to mark the anniversary of 9/11 but only about 15 turned up.
Despite the calls from Imams and anti-fascism campaigners a number of youths, mostly from the local community, clashed with the 550 police officers deployed to oversee the demonstration.
Mr Denham said yesterday’s violence will have played into the hands of anti-Islamics who masterminded the protests.
He said: “I think that the English Defence League and other organisations are not actually large numbers of people.
“They clearly, though, have among them people who know what exactly they’re doing.
“If you look at the types of demonstrations they’ve organised it looks pretty clear that it’s a tactic designed to provoke and to get a response and hopefully create violence.”
“All we are facing at the moment is small. But I think we need to take it seriously enough to say that there are obviously people who would like to be provocative, hope that there is not just a reaction but there is an overreaction, then people blame the people who overreact and the situation gets out of control.” >>> Robin Henry | Saturday, September 12, 2009
John Denham, Socialist MP for Southampton Itchen >>>
