This is one of a series of posts focusing on the issues of Islamophobia currently being worked out in Luton and the UK. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK
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I wrote my own account of what happened in Luton yesterday (Sunday). This is what happened in Luton yesterday. There is another account on line here: Violent Mob Runs Amok in Luton Town Centre.
Richard Bartholomew's Barth's Notes on Religion are based on compilation of what the papers say
and his research, and as usual his post is an excellent and incisive summary: Violence at “Anti-Extremist” Rally in Luton.
However on this occasion since some fo the sources are inaccurate so is
he. That is made up for however by a comment posted by Dave Smeeton,
one of the organisers. More on that later.
Most of the articles say much the same. The three articles I draw attention to are longer, and are all the more successful at giving the wrong picture. The BBC has: Two charged over trouble at march , the Telegraph: Nine rioters arrested after 'Luton protest turned violent' and the Daily Mail: Nine arrested after masked mob's march against Muslim extremists turns violent .
I have a problem with what appears to be the accepted story of the event. This is the Telegraph:
Around 500 demonstrators marched through Luton, Beds, on Sunday waving banners bearing slogans such as "No Sharia Law in the UK" and "Respect our Troops". The crowd, which had gathered for a peaceful protest against Muslims who denounced troops returning from Iraq in March, was supposed to be escorted by police along a planned route. But officers ended up fighting running battles with protesters after the some of mob bolted and began attacking Asian residents.
A large crowd, a sunny Sunday afternoon (well it doesn't say it was sunny but it was!), everybody marching and behaving nicely, and then a few trouble makers break away and spoil it. The trouble is it wasn't like that. Until a few minutes before the march was due to begin, most of the participants (200+) were in local pubs several hundred meters away from where the march was due to begin. When they congregated and were escorted to the park by mounted police, they found a small group waiting quietly. They didn't even join them for a minute, there never was one march. They evaded the police and dashed off (at 4.50pm according to a text message I have), and there followed from there most of an hour before the police could contain them, during which time they tried to get to Bury park (the Asian area) several times, broke windscreens, broke into an Asaian take away and assaulted one or two. They had about 5 minutes at the War Memorial (around 5pm) during which time they nominally did what had been expected, except that the pictures hardly speak of a peaceful commemorative occasion.
That was the first group. As they left Manor Park, they left behind a group who had been expecting a march during which they could honour and support British troops. March for England have run several such marches and Dave Smeeton had come alongside local organisers to help organise the event. He writes (in his comment on line today on Barth's Notes as above) an account of his section of the march:
This was pretty much as I saw it.
However behind this group another group followed once the police gave them permission to proceed. They gathered on Market Hill and didn't bother to go to Manor Park. The BBC interviewed one of them in a short clip on the link to the BBC story. He was put off by the violence. When they got to thewar memorial they stayed there.
Three groups marching, with far and away the biggest one not wanting to be associated wth the law and order represented by the other two.
This was not Lionheart and friends greatest hour, not even yet. It is not the beginning of an uprising, of English people driving the Muslim into the sea. It is a troubling incident in the history of our dear town. The recriminations online between dispointed and diillusioned men and women are nasty.
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