150 meet in Leicester to oppose EDL rally
Up to 150 people attended a public meeting in Leicester last night to demonstrate their opposition to next month's proposed march by the English Defence League (EDL).
The meeting was called by Leicester Unite Against Fascism, which has applied to stage a counter protest on Saturday, February 4.
The meeting, at Highfields Community Centre, in Melbourne Road, heard calls for the EDL to either be banned from marching in the city centre or for a large counter demonstration to be organised.
Priya Thamotheram, of Leicester Civil Rights Movement and the Leicester Race Equality Centre, said: "We must not allow the EDL to close the city centre and cause the massive disruption they did last time."
Police and mayor Sir Peter Soulsby are considering their responses to the applications.
The EDL wants to protest about what it claims is an anti-white bias in the justice system.







41 Comments
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by blink2
Saturday, February 04 2012, 9:45AM
“After the Norman invasion in 1066, the law was changed to give harsher sentences to a Saxon for beating a Norman, than for a Norman beating a Saxon.”
by wackercooper
Tuesday, January 31 2012, 9:38PM
“The English Defence League SHOULD be allowed to march through the city this weekend. However, it stops people going about their business due to the opposing group Unite Against Facism (since when has protesting against too many immigrants in this small city been Facism)? I believe it is wrong to allow both groups to march on the same day. This only means that there will be fighting and thats what they come for, not a peaceful march.
I rarely hear my own language spoken in the city I was born in and do not like going into town any more. There are those women who wear black hoods which I call letterboxes so you can only see their eyes. How doctors and medical can treat these people I do not know.”
by clagnutt
Tuesday, January 31 2012, 12:00PM
“150 met , that means 600,000 didnt .”
by LEIC_STAR
Saturday, January 21 2012, 10:37AM
“The counter protest is goin to be HUGE compared to the last one.....Realiable sources tell me there may be up to 10,000 counter prostestors some coming from as far as scotland...its gonna be hard for the EDIAT DEFENCE LEAGE to match that”
by Peter1125
Friday, January 20 2012, 10:10PM
“davidh1967 As already pointed out it's a hell of a coincidence that someone with the same name as you and from the same the area of Leicester which you have indicated to be from before appears on the BNP member list. Add to this the content of your posts here and on other articles, which strongly suggest this BNP activist could truly well be you David.
It also amazes me that you have done the exact same in your last post and expect the entire Muslim population to apologise for something which they cannot be held responsible for.”
by davidh1967
Friday, January 20 2012, 9:34PM
“I am not in the BNP or EDL, nor have I ever been.
Will our Muslim brothers be stating it is ok to be gay, will they be marching to condemn the brothers who have been found guilty of producing a leaflet "inciting hatred" towards homosexuals?
http://tinyurl.com/735v9vu”
by phreakdown
Friday, January 20 2012, 7:51PM
“@ Steviehilton.
what trouble did the UAF cause last time the EDL were here? Please give one example?”
by bimple
Friday, January 20 2012, 7:31PM
“A serious question for the EDL-ers on here. You know the standard pre-prepared text that you post on here about specific groups, incidents, or in-depth arguments? Where do they come from? Do the ELD leadership have acitivists who prepare and provide the text for people to use locally on sites like this? Or is it just cut and pasted from elsewhere? I'm genuinely interested.”
by Red_Ned
Friday, January 20 2012, 7:23PM
“This is getting tedious - it is quite clear to anyone who actually takes any time to look beyond the tabloids (and the vast number of right wing blogs who repeat the same paranoid rantings over and over again) that the vast majority of muslims, in Leicester, in the UK and worldwide do not support extremists. Indeed why should they as they are so often (far more often than any other group in fact) the victims of that extremism. I wonder if any of these people actually KNOW any muslims? Somehow I doubt it.
I'm still waiting for the EDL to condemn their many, many members who have been convicted of crimes past and present instead of just re-hashing the same excuse they probably learnt in school - "It was him that started it..."
As for Muhammad saying "war is deceit" - the quote you are (deliberately) mis-interpreting about what can be done in a war. It was advice which I'm sure the SAS or, indeed, anybody fighting in a war, would probably recognise - hardly something unique to Islam.
By Loughb's logic almost anything anyone said cannot be trusted because someone else they might know is connected to someone else who said or did something once. This way madness lies.”
by Peter1125
Friday, January 20 2012, 6:53PM
“@davidh1967 If the EDL oppose the views of the BNP, then by your logic the EDL should be marching and campaigning against the BNP surely. However that is highly unlikely as it's possible they both have a shared interest, a resentment of all Muslims based on the actions of some.
And it's clear there is no evidence to support your assumption regarding all muslims supporting extremism.
Also davidh1967 have you ever been a BNP activist yourself.
I ask this in the interest of transparency for other readers on the subject so please be honest, as it's possible I and others may already know the answer to this.”