"Anti-Muslim" protest turns violent after right-wing extremists fail to show

Yesterday thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators gathered in front of the new Harrow Central Mosque to protest against a planned demonstration by the group Stop Islamification of Europe (SIOE). Amongst the groups present were United Against Fascism (UAF), the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Unite the Union, alongside a sizeable majority of worshippers from the Harrow Mosque itself.



The estimated 2,000 protestors were outside the mosque to oppose the English Defence League (EDL) and SIOE's demonstration against the construction of a new 5-storey masjid (traditionally-built mosque with dome and spire) to replace the existing mosque, a converted house on the end of a terrace. However, reportedly fewer than 20 right-wing protestors made it to the area after police prevented them from gaining access to the area. A police source commented that, "If the SIOE demonstration started it would have resulted in serious disorder".

Once it was clear that the anti-Islam protestors were not going to attend, the mood turned ugly. The crowd, the vast portion of which was wearing Arabic headdress which conceals the face, began joining in with UAF agitators who encouraged the crowd to chant "Nazi scum - off our streets". Rival chants of "Allahu akhbar" began from the mosque, while Islamic leaders began herding people back onto the pavements.

An initial scuffle took place in the Civic Centre carpark. A young Somalian, Mohammed Hussein, 16, claimed to have "banged this white man" and further proclaimed he was "ready for war". A group of similar-aged Muslim youth around him readily agreed.

In stark contrast to this was Claire, a 33-year-old political history graduate who was attending with the Socialist Workers' Party. In response to Mohammed Hussein's aggression, she calmly stated "If someone's got a skinhead you can't just beat the crap out of them". Claire's measured reasoning was a stark contrast to the rest of the crowd, however, who were visibly becoming more and more agitated. In the words of one police sergeant, they were "chasing shadows".

Interestingly, in contrast to the usual press angle, the mosque elders were doing their level best to keep calm. A number of locals were mingling in the crowd, wearing hi-vis jackets, while calming the more inflammatory elements; this last including the UAF , who had brought a megaphone with them. It was a telling sight, seeing the imams directly telling the UAF to "shut up and go home" - the popular perception of Islam, as an organised front for violent extremism, bore no resemblance to these people who merely wanted to observe their religion in peace.

Violent confrontation was never far from the surface, however. Several hundred Muslims, believing they had seen a group of SIOE protestors (who, on the balance of probabilities, were actually the European reporters coming over the railway bridge), broke free of the thin police cordon outside the Star Club restaurant and charged over the bridge. There they met not far-right extremists, but a solid cordon of riot police. Stones, bottles and staves were quickly thrown and a full-scale riot came within seconds of starting as police deployed stun grenades to drive the Muslims back. One protestor next to this journalist claimed to have seen Nick Griffin standing behind the police, a palpably laughable claim when I identified a reporter from a well-known TV news channel. His only resemblance to the BNP leader was that he was white and wearing a suit.

Denied a confrontation with the police, who stood resolutely and shrugged off the incoming missiles, the youths turned on the press photographers in their midst, angrily screaming "No cameras!" Once again, violence was mere seconds away until the press relented and fell back to the relative safety of the police line. With all their targets now ignoring them or cowed into submission, the baying mob gradually fell back amidst shouts of "defend the masjid" [mosque]. Community leaders hastened the retreat, telling the more reluctant individuals "Fall back or they'll take our pictures and show how bad we are, we don't want that."

As the Muslim youths fell back - no sign of the trades union or UAF now - individuals started running at the civic centre. Spurred on by the thought of far-right blood to spill, the mob took to its heels once again. However, as in almost every other occurrence, there were no SIOE protestors - just shadows. The frustrated mob began slaking its thirst on the civic centre windows, with barriers being picked up and hurled. It took some minutes for more riot police to intervene and drive the mob back before the violence got out of hand.


The rest of the evening followed this pattern of the mainly Muslim mob chasing at shadows and the police wearily rushing after them to corrall them back in and prevent serious damage from occurring. As always, once the mob realised it didn't have a 'legitimate' target, it vented its anger on the police, who to their credit, stood fast and took the bricks and bottles. Community leaders did their best to stem the anger, but the mob was simply too large for them to effectively control.

All in all, yesterday's events showed the anti-fascists for what they were; a mob just as capricious and violent as the fascists they professed to oppose. The only creditable performances were from the police, who had clearly learned their lessons from the G20 demos, and the local Muslim religious leaders, who did their level best to stem the violence and calm the mob who rioted in their name.

See also: BBC, Sky, Times Online, Daily Telegraph


Postscript: On my way home I fell in with an Australian called Dav, who had attended as part of the UAF contingent. While we walked towards Harrow-on-the-Hill station together, we witnessed a large gang of masked and hooded Asians and Somalians throwing stones at a police van, shouting "white pig fascist scum". Some way further on, a gang of boys about 15 or 16 years of age followed us, shouting "BNP fascist" at Dav - who was as white as chalk and unfortunately suffered from baldness. To his credit, he stopped and clearly explained who he was and what he was doing there, which calmed the boys; yet had he been alone I would have feared for his safety.