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Issue 242, Friday 26 June 2009 - 3 Rajab 1430

Three charged for Luton anti-Islam rally

By Elham Asaad Buaras

Three of the nine people who were arrested in Luton after anti-Islam protesters clashed with police have been charged. Violence erupted on May 24 after demonstrators, many wearing balaclavas, waved St George flags and screamed at officers.
The rally was organised by a group called March for England as protest against extremists.
Protestors, who were joined by a local group United People of Luton held ‘No Sharia Law in the UK’ and ‘Respect our Troops’ banners. Some protesters wore masks with the horned face of Sayful Islam, an activist in who disrupted the homecoming of the Royal Anglian Regiment in the town centre on March 10.
Riot police on horseback and dogs were deployed after the crowd of around 500 escaped police escort and ran towards the town centre.
Groups of men in balaclavas and England shirts chanted outside the city centre and one balacava-clad protester held a Rottweiler on a chain. One Asian man was hit across the face with a banner and left with a bloody nose. Three car windscreens were smashed and a window at a take away restaurant in Chapel Street had been broken.
In a statement to The Muslim News a Bedfordshire Police spokesman confirmed a man has appeared at Luton Magistrates’ Court on May 26 charged with possessing a weapon. A woman will appear in court charged with an anti-social behavior offense. And, “a third man was fined for a public order offense.”
Luton’s far right groups were recently left under immense scrutiny with the Luton Islamic Centre getting firebombed on May 5.
In a statement to The Muslim News Unite against Fascism Joint Secretary, Weyman, said, “Protests such as these, no matter what their declared intentions are, will invariably attract BNP elements and other far right hooligans.” Weyman’s views are shared by Chief Superintendent Andy Frost who also believes the troubles are being intensified by “allot of it is from people outside Luton. Unfortunately Luton gave people the catalyst on the 10th March, when the army parade got disrupted.”