London, September 09: Right-wing demonstrators plan to protest outside one of London’s largest mosques on the anniversary of September 11, is stirring fears of anti-Muslim violence and prompting condemnation as a racist, hate monger act against Britain’s Muslim community.
“These self-confessed hooligans will attack people, I’m absolutely convinced about that,” Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of the Unite Against Fascism movement, told.
Members of the Anti-Islam group English Defense League (EDL) are planning a rally that will descend on the site of the new Harrow Central Mosque in London on Friday, the anniversary of September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The EDL, which clashed with the police and Muslim groups in Birmingham on Saturday during another anti-Islam protest leading to 35 arrests, has advertised the event on its website.
Muslims voiced fears that the protest would turn violent as the case in Birmingham, especially if the bigger numbers expected this time harassed the faithful.
Extra security had been hired and worshippers had been urged to ignore provocation.
“We would request that the local authority and the police try to put a stop to it,” Haroon Sheikh, chairman of Harrow Central Mosque, said.
“We would have 200 to 300 people coming here for prayers on a Friday. Emotions will be high if it’s provoked, but we will have the police and we will have stewards here.”
Bennett, of Unite Against Fascism, agrees that the right-wingers will aim at provocation.
“They know exactly what people will do, and they want a picture of people charging out of a mosque.”
The EDL is affiliated to Casuals United, former football hooligans who want to “fight Jihadists in the community”.
The protest is being organized by a third right-wing group calling itself Stop Islamification of Europe, which claims that “Islamophobia is the height of commonsense”.
Islamophobia
“We are puzzled why protesters are singling out Harrow Central Mosque as something new and threatening,” Ashton said.
Protesters claim that they are targeting the under construction Harrow mosque, set to be one of the capital’s largest when it opens next year, to stress a point.
“Our issue is with the mosque,” Tommy Robinson, an EDL organizer, said.
“It is near enough the size of Wembley. Five floors. That’s not good for community cohesion.”
But non-Muslim politicians and right activists slammed the rightists’ claims as hate-mongering.
“The mosque has been in Harrow for 35 years so it is part of the fabric of Harrow,” David Ashton, leader of Harrow Council, said.
“We are puzzled why protesters are singling out Harrow Central Mosque as something new and threatening.”
Ashton added it was a “great shame” that fascists and hate mongers felt they had to import their “extreme views” into their region.
“Harrow does not tolerate extreme views either from those who seek to misuse Islam in the name of a violent agenda or political hardliners who try and create divisions among people from different backgrounds.”
UAF are mulling a “solidarity vigil” to “defend the mosque from racists and fascists”.
“Islamophobia bigotry against Muslims is as unacceptable as any other form of racism,” the group said in a statement on its website. “Its aim is to divide us by making scapegoats of one community.
“Today they threaten the mosque, tomorrow it could be a synagogue, temple or church.
“Today they threaten Muslims, tomorrow it could be Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, blacks, gays, travelers or Eastern Europeans.”
-Agencies