The EDL Is Feeding Threatening Behaviour

Supposedly, the leader of the English Defence League (EDL) and his family have been threatened by a small minority of extremists. Of course, this should be condemned by all means and action should be taken to stop it happening again.

But we also have to remember that these threats don’t come out of the blue. People don’t just get angry for absolutely no reason. There has to be a reason or cause. And there is.

As the police have warned us two years ago (here), the EDL is helping ‘feed extremism’. So it’s no surprise people are getting angry due to the organisations deep-rooted hatred towards a certain minority.

Evidence proves that the EDL has constantly been targeting minority religious and racial groups. The EDL leader himself has even threatened the Muslim community at a protest at Tower Hamlets last year, and EDL members have threatened to burn places of worship and shouted threatening chants. Some examples of threatening behaviour are given below.

Threats are likely to create anger and opposition. This correlates to the June 2012 paper by the Hague-based International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), which asserted that groups such as the EDL and extremists of Islamic faith are ‘feeding’ eachother. We believe however, that the EDL is a bigger threat to society, due to its current activity, the international support and political links it has made.

Whilst the EDL goes on, the threats are not likely to stop, because the EDL is constantly reinforcing bad attitudes and feeding hatred. When it’s received at the opposite end, it usually comes back.