EDL March To Go Ahead
The "anti Islamic extremism" protest from the English Defence League will go ahead as planned on Saturday on our city's streets, despite calls from Deputy Leader, Lib Dem Councillor Paul Tilsley to ban it. But plans for a "Birmingham United" concert backed by John Hemming MP amongst others have been cancelled after a lack of support from the Police and City Council.
Exact plans for the EDL march are unclear, although Police have been successful in restricting gatherings in the Bullring shopping area. Suggestions of a protest march around the Broad Street area have been discussed, as has a march to Lancaster Circus. What we do know is the EDL are bussing in people from all across the country.
Let's remind ourselves of the events of 8th August again. It concerns me that although families and children shopping in the Bullring will be protected from a potential repeat performance, the significant number of residents of the Broad Street area will not be.
Throw into the mix the England match means the Broad Street bars are likely to be packed - and all I can see is potential trouble.
See my previous post for why I think this protest should be banned.
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September 4th, 2009 - 13:35
I agree with you. Both protests should be banned. The police tried the tolerant approach once, last month, and it backfired completely. I personally witnessed scenes that I never thought I’d see in the city centre. So I really don’t get West Midlands Police’s renewed optimism. I’m seriously puzzled as I’m sure many residents, city centre workers (i.e. bar staff) and shopkeepers are.
October 7th, 2009 - 13:17
The problem is if Muslims turn out in an anti-demo, the focus of biased media will be to label all muslims there as extremists, watering down the fact that the ones who are actually insiting the hatred and extremism are predominantly white british extremists who mostly happen to be christians, but the term christian extremist will never be published in any press, it seems so much easier to highlight the word muslim or islamic extremist than christian extremist.