Brawls at recent protests shows how all of people in Britain, and especially the media, have a responsibility to fight extremism, Sunny Hundal writes on The Guardian.
The riot on Saturday 8 August in Birmingham city centre involved more than 100 people and pitched battles in the high street.
On one side, a loose alliance of two groups – the English Defence League and Casual United had organised an anti-Islamic fundamentalism demonstration, on the other, a counter demonstration organised by United Against Fascism.
According to Sunny Hundal, the background to the Saturday riot in Birmingham was the protest against British soldiers by some Muslim extremists on 10 March, and it was used by various far-right groups to be against the majority of Muslims in this country.
Prior to the Birmingham riot, the National Front turned out a big demonstration in Luton on 13 April, which needed police reinforcements from London to control, and some time later, the Luton mosque was fire-bombed, Sunny Hundal writes.
On 24 May an even bigger protest was organised by the English and Welsh Defence League, went to destroy property in Muslim-heavy areas of Luton.
Sunny says that evidence show the English Defence League was in particular infiltrated by neo-Nazis and BNP supporters. Stormfront, a popular website for fascists, urged members to join the demonstration on Saturday.
He agrees the need for minorities to defend themselves in the streets or fight against fascists if necessary, especially if the police do not do their job properly that people have to step in to protect themselves.
He also so says extremist Muslims should not be let off the hook. In 2004 the extremist group al-Muhajiroun had planned a rally in London where Hindus and Sikhs would be openly converted to Islam. They nearly caused a mini-riot then because Sikh gangs and BNP members had also planned to show up.
Anjem Choudhary carried out a similar stunt recently by apparently converting an 11-year-old to Islam. Al-Muhajiroun has always been a small but highly vocal group, which seeks publicity for its stunts to polarise people, it is shunned by mosques across the country, but its stunts nevertheless inflame Hindu, Sikh and white groups thanks to incessant media coverage.
Sunny then summarises that several choices offered here: the group could be banned for activities on a par with the National Front. The Police could also become more proactive against extremist groups, and stop local councils giving them any space.
Lastly, he says Muslim groups themselves need to step up campaigning against these extremists or these extremists will continue making life more difficult for them.
Then Sunny writes Britons also need to get re-acquainted with British tradition of free speech and express, even if it involves people of different skin colour and religion saying outrageous things.
The police and intelligence services also need to start taking far-right extremism in UK more seriously.
At the end of his article, entitled “Sensationalism is a gift to extremists”, the author writes the real people to blame for these riots are the journalists willing to run inflammatory headlines, playing straight into the hands of extremists on both sides.
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