"BUSINESS AS USUAL"

06-09-2009

More than 30 arrests, countless innocent citizens terrorised, dozens of traders facing drastically reduced takings. The grim statistics of another visit to Birmingham by the English Defence League on a day the police promised would be “business as usual”.

Still, at least the democratic right to protest has been upheld. But for who?

Although the EDL’s leaders insist the target of their venom is only Islamic extremism, that message clearly didn’t get through to all their followers. Hence the banners saying “No More Mosques” being paraded around the city centre.

A leaflet handed out by the group deliberately blurred the line between “fundamentalist” and ordinary Muslims.

It said, “Islam is a threat to us all. Don’t let this oppressive religion go unchallenged. Time to make stand”.

Are these the words of a group which deserves to have an unprecedented police operation deployed to preserve their free speech?

And never mind their words, what about their actions?

The EDL called for demonstrators to gather at Broad Street three to four hours before the demo started.

Why not simply tell them to gather at Lancaster Circus at 3.30? Is encouraging your followers to gather for more than three hours in a part of town primarily known for its pubs the act of a responsible organisation? And does it make sense to invite them to walk across a crowded shopping centre on a busy Saturday afternoon?

Then there was the claim that West Midlands police were planning to escort protestors to Lancaster Circus. The cops are adamant no such assurance was given, but the information remained on the EDL’s website even after the error had been pointed out.

Their tanked-up retinue weren’t satisfied with this, either. They attempted to outflank the forces of law and order by leaving Broad Street early, at around 2pm, and having been penned into Bennett’s pub managed to find a side exit and hurled glasses and bottles at onlookers in New Street.

David Hughes wrote on The Stirrer Forum, “About 50 to 60 EDL supporters attacked some Asian youths by throwing glasses and beer bottles at the top end of New St.

“The EDL supporters emerged out of an alleyway throwing abuse, beer bottles and glasses.

“They were aiming at Asian youths and bystanders who had gathered at the junction of Bennetts Hill and New St.”

This account was confirmed by others in the vicinity, giving the lie to the claim that the EDL supporters were simply innocent protestors targeted by extremists from the other side of the political fence.

United Against Fascism, who were blamed for some of the aggression last time, showed admirable restraint in staying away – but still there was bother.

There were other people interested in violence, too, mind: I witnessed riot police coming under a barrage of bricks from mainly Asian youngsters trying to get at the EDL along Waterloo Street as they were held on the steps of Bennett’s.

The youths may have felt provoked but there was still no excuse for their actions.

All the same, we must get away from this notion (forcibly promoted by the BBC and the police among others) that there are two equal groups of extremists at work here. It’s simply not true.

There is a group – the English Defence League – who are abusing their right to free speech by coming into a diverse, multicultural city to stir up hatred, and they are, quite understandably, meeting resistance from those who feel under threat from their message.

Should we condone this violent resistance? No. Can we understand it? Of course we can.

And if the police continue to peddle the line that there’s nowt else they can do, all their hard work to promote community cohesion will come to nought.

Nor does it amount to much of a claim by force to say that "shoppers in and around the Bullring shopping centre were unaffected by the disorder” when so many other areas of town were violently disrupted.

“Business as usual” was the promise they made, and it was sadly unfulfilled.

Allowing the EDL to visit again will simply mean that “business as normal” in Birmingham will come to mean flying bottles and bricks.”

DISCUSS THIS ON THE STIRRER FORUM