THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Far-right anti-Islamic groups from across Europe are planning to rally in Denmark, for what organisers have billed as the birth of a European movement.
"There will be speeches from every defence league in Europe," said Isak Nygren, the spokesman for the Swedish Defence League. "I hope we can show that there's resistance against Islamisation of Europe, that we can inspire each other."
The EDL has held one European rally before, sending members to Amsterdam in 2010 in support of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, who was in court accused of insulting religious and ethnic groups.
Mr Wilders, who has moved to distance himself from the EDL, is not expected to attend the event.
Stephen Lennon, the former football hooligan who formed the EDL three years ago, however said he was inspired by the Amsterdam gathering to link up with other far-Right groups in Europe, setting up the European Freedom Initiative.
He described the planned gathering, in Aarhus on March 31, as the "first proper European event".
"We're hoping this will be the launch of a wider European Defence League," he said. "We don't expect it to be big, but our first event wasn't that big, and they're just going to get bigger and bigger." » | Richard Orange, Malmö | Wednesday, January 18, 2012
