EDL Boss seeks to lead EU fascists

The UK's English Defence League boss is to hold a European rally with other fascist groups across Europe. Stephen Lennon, the convicted football hooligan who formed the EDL three years ago, however, said he wanted to 'link up with other far-Right groups in Europe, setting up the European Freedom Initiative'. He described the planned gathering in Aarhus, Denmark on March 31, as the 'first proper European event', adding

'We're hoping this will be the launch of a wider European Defence League.'

In Denmark, Imran Shah, the spokesman for the Islamic Society urged Muslims to keep away from the rally and called on the Danish government to act against the growing movement, especially in the wake of last year's massacre of 77 people by Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik.

'We've seen what the rhetoric of hate can do in Norway. Do we want some deaths here before we react?'

Here, there has been quick condemnation of Lennon's expansion plans throughout Europe.

Weyman Bennet, a spokesman for Unite against Fascism, said: 'Everywhere they've called a demonstration there's been violence. Across Europe, the Sweden Democrats and the Danish People's Party, all of them are growing by using this rhetoric. We see them as a group of people who will try and encourage fascist politics. They've simply swapped anti-Semitism for anti-Islam.'

The sad part about the growth of fascism in Europe and particularly that of the EDL is that for too long the establishment, including the BBC, regarded the EDL as a legitimate voice that needed to be heard. Politicians and journalists alike were easily hoodwinked by the likes of Lennon precisely because their own anti-Islamic rhetoric wasn't too far behind.

Simon Woolley