The two videos below were shot outside of Rochdale Town Hall
yesterday at the EDL demo. In them, Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon attacks the
failure of the social services and the police in acknowledging and facing up to
the problem of Muslim paedophile gangs, differentiating between the
rank-and-file police officers, who he thinks do a good job, and their
politically correct superiors who have prevented them from effectively
protecting young girls from this pattern of abuse not only in Rochdale, but in
many other towns and cities across England.
A tweet by a BBC journalist yesterday led to unfounded
rumours about Lennon setting fire to a Qur’an. Instead, he initially held it
aloft in a plastic bag “because supposedly, I’m not worthy enough to touch it.
You can pass 47 of our youth around your community and rape them and abuse
them, but I can’t touch this book.” He then proceeded to remove it from the bag and hold it next
to a cigarette lighter, stating that children are being brainwashed by schools
into believing that Islam is a religion of peace. Given that allegedly only 3%
of the population is Muslim, why is it then that are 80% of grooming cases are
perpetrated by Muslims? “Why are they so overrepresented when they are raping
our youth?” He made reference that another nine men had been arrested in
connection with the Rochdale case, but stating “That is the tip of an iceberg.”
He stated that 60 girls in Derby and 100 in Blackpool had been victims of such
crimes, and that cases had also occurred in Huddersfield, Rotherham. In
“[e]very single city that has an Islamic community, they are raping, pimping
and abusing our youth.” He then went on to state that “There is a court case
next month in Oxford with another seven Muslim men and another 50 of our kids
aged 11 to 14.”
Following this enumeration of cases of Muslim paedophile
grooming, members of the crowd chanted “burn it”, urging him to set light to
the Qur’an. However, he desisted from doing so, citing as the reason his unwillingness
to offend decent, peaceful Muslims belonging to sects such as the Sufis and Ahmadiyyahs
who wish to coexist with us. An Ahmadiyyah EDL supporter named Abdul was then
invited to join him in front of the crowd: “We accept that there are some
Muslims who are proud to be British” stated Lennon, who also pointed out that
Abdul found verses such as Surah 4 Verse 3 objectionable. Instead of burning
the Qur’an, Lennon urged supporters to read it so that they could become acquainted
with its negative content, reiterating that you can hate a religion and an
ideology, but not a group of people.
One surprise that emerged from the speech (perhaps some
readers will already be aware of this) is that Lennon claims to have a Muslim
second cousin who was also a victim of multiple rape.
In closing, he drew attention to the fact that Muslim gangs
targeted all non-Muslim girls, not just English girls, for such a pattern of
abuse has occurred with young Sikhs being targeted. Lastly, he stated that “we
have to form a movement in every town and city where we can defend ourselves.”
As news comes in about this event, updates will be posted
here throughout the day. Until information becomes available, it will perhaps
be useful to provide a little context for why the EDL has chosen to stage a demonstration
in Rochdale today.
The demo has been prompted by the recent conviction of a
gang of Rochdale Muslims at Liverpool Crown Court for the grooming of English
girls, with these nine convictions being followed up by further arrests and a
police hunt for an additional 40 suspects. At least 47 girls are believed to
have been victims of the gang sentenced in Liverpool. What has angered members
of the EDL, and many members of the public who have read reports of the case,
has been the fact that the police and social services had been reluctant to act
upon information relating to this case for fear of being branded ‘racist’.
Clearly, when such a fear overrides the duty of social workers to protect the
vulnerable and police to investigate crimes and arrest criminals, something is
seriously amiss both with our legal system and the mode of politically correct
thought that it imposes. Moreover, much of the media reporting relating to this
case, particularly the BBC’s coverage, has been deliberately inaccurate, seeking
to hide the faith background of the criminals by dubbing them ‘Asians’, which
in itself constitutes a racial slur against Sikhs, Hindus, Chinese, Japanese
and anyone else originating in the vast continent of Asia.
Underpinning the grossly distorted and biased reporting of
this phenomenon is the NUJ Code of Conduct, Article 9 of which reads:
Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or
discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed,
legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.
This singles out ‘creed’, hence presumably the BBC’s coyness
about identifying the Islamic identity of the child rapists, and preference for
opting for the blanket term ‘Asians’ which encompasses more than one racial
group and thus enables its journalists to state that they were not writing
anything that could be construed as discriminating upon a racial basis.
Additional NUJ guidelines have been explicit in stating that
any party or group that it deems to be ‘far right’, in which it includes the
EDL, should not be reported in an objective fashion and should instead be
stigmatised. The reporting of any card-carrying member of the NUJ cannot
therefore be trusted to provide an accurate representation of an EDL protest or
what the EDL stands for.
It is not the first time that supporters of the EDL have
taken to the streets of the town, for in March 2011 a protest took place that
was met by violent counterdemonstrators (a report of this demonstration can be
read here and videos viewed here). Rochdale has witnessed other protests relating to the
Islamic issue this year, with an anti-halal protest at a local ASDA in January,
a Northwest Infidels (EDL splinter group) demo in February and a local demo in
Heywood later that month connected to apprehensions about the Muslim grooming
issue which, owing to the actions of a few troublemakers, later resulted in a small number of violent incidents. Rochdale therefore is not a town at ease
with itself, and it would behove social services, local politicians and the
police to acknowledge and address the real problems that Rochdale faces rather
than pretending that they did not exist. It is because of this official
reluctance and absence of objectivity that the EDL has seen it necessary to
hold the protest, so when local traders complain about the EDL ruining their
business on a Saturday, they should instead be directing their complaints to
their negligent councillors and telling them to tackle the problems that the
EDL highlights, for then such protests would not be necessary and their
business would not be disrupted.
Rochdale voters should take note of the attitude of MP Simon
Danczuk who has clearly indicated in Mancunian Matters that he wishes to continue to ignore the root
cause of this issue, and thereby potentially facilitate further grooming:
“Tomorrow’s ‘protest’ is nothing
more than an attempt to stir up racial tensions and incite violence.
“The police are fully prepared to
deal with this and the protest will be outside of the town centre, which will
be open for business as usual.
“I would urge everyone to continue
to support local shops and businesses.”
Danczuk’s statement is a nastily cynical appeal for
Muslim votes. It is the ignorance of people like him that has allowed real
violence to be perpetrated against English girls by those of a radically
different ethno-religious background. If he continues to be blinded by the
‘diversity’ dogma, the voters of Rochdale should ensure that he is ejected at
the next General Election, and that someone who does acknowledge their concerns
is put in his place.
Coaches please make your way to
Sandbrook Park OL11 1RY where you will be met by the police and escorted to
designated EDL muster point for drop off.
People arriving at Rochdale train station will be transferred by bus to the
muster points.
The muster points are Yate’s and the Flying horse. Postcode
OL16 1ND and OL 16 1NJ.
A short march will begin at the Flying Horse at 13.30 to the demo point where
speeches will be made.
UPDATES Hope Not Hate reports that a 'local group' named Rochdale Unity will be gathering today at the same time as the EDL to mount a 'counter protest'. However, it must be borne in mind that this is no ordinary 'local group', but as is spelt out quite explicitly on the Socialist Workers Party website, a 'local' Trotskyist front group which seeks to capitalise upon the EDL demo to draw in misguided Muslims and locals alike to further the SWP's subversive strategy of undermining our democracy and our right to exist as a people. Local MP Gerald Kaufman, a number of trade unionists (including members of the National Union of Teachers) and anti-democratic organisation UAF have all given their backing to the Rochdale Unity demo. On the Muslim social networking site named yanabi.com Mohammed Shafiq stated that he had made a speech at the counterdemonstration. Shafiq claimed that there were about 100 present at the Rochdale Unity protest. The declared purpose of yanabi.com: 'reviving the spirit of Islam.'
The Halifax Courier reports that 150 EDL supporters gathered in Sowerby Bridge this morning to catch the train to Rochdale. It employed the mandatory NUJ stigmatising label of 'far-right' to describe the EDL, whereas it referred to the convicted Muslim paedophile gang as simply being 'Rochdale men' as in line with Article 9 of the NUJ Code of Conduct as quoted above. However, it did concede that they had been peaceful.
'Four local youths have approached demonstratrors, which caused a standoff. Reports of 'attacks' are exaggerated.'
Quite what was meant by 'local' in this context was not clarified.
According to a Tweet by BBC journalist Catrin Nye, Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon had taken to the 'stage with a koran and a fag lighter.' However, the GMP later Tweeted that this statement had been incorrect, and that only EDL posters had been burnt. According to a GMP Tweet issued at circa 14:30 a total of eight arrests had been made, although it was not stated who had been arrested. The demo finished at circa 15:30.
Surprisingly, when the BBC did get around to posting a report on its website at 19:35 it refrained from labelling the EDL as 'far-right' which makes a refreshing change, and even went so far as to make reference to the Pakistani and Afghan origin of the convicted groomers who had been resident in the town. In continuance of what appears to have been a rare piece of straight matter-of-fact reporting from the BBC, it went on to cite the GMP's Chief Superintendent John O'Hare as saying that the scale of arrests - 11 in all - was "not uncommon for an event of that size" and that "I do think it is testament to the organisers themselves who worked with us to ensure the event passed off as peacefully as possible." Although the piece was short, the absence of the usual venom churned out in line with NUJ diktat was welcome, but is this merely a momentary aberration in its reporting of the EDL, or does this mark a new departure? Whatever the case, the EDL organisers are clearly to be congratulated in doing a good job of keeping the protest in good order.
As with the Halifax Courier, the Manchester Evening News chose to describe the EDL as 'far-right' and provided a lower estimate of the number of demonstrators than other sources, claiming that there were 400 in all. It also reported that there had been a total of eleven arrests, ten being made at the protest and one at the counterdemonstration. However, Greater Manchester Police noted that the protest had "passed off peacefully."
