And it has renewed worries the anti-Islam group is ready to bring bloody conflict to British streets.
Disturbingly, the hooded thugs pose in front of flags bearing the name and No Surrender slogan of the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force.
The link to the UVF – a group responsible for at least 481 Catholic murders – has sparked fears factions of the anti-Islamic EDL could launch terror attacks against British Muslims.
The sinister snap was among a set posted on the web this month by men claiming to be from the EDL’s Birmingham Division.
In another, a man makes a sick Nazi salute.
Anti-fascist groups have slammed the EDL – led by ex-British National Party member Stephen Lennon, 28 – for not weeding out such extremists from their own ranks.
A spokesman from Searchlight said: “Time after time we hear from the likes of the EDL’s leadership how they are a non-racist organisation.
“Perhaps they would like to act now and tell us how they will deal with the further adulation of gun-toting extremists, in particular the UVF – an organisation that made its name in Ireland by murdering people whose sole crime normally was that they were born Catholics.”EDL leader Lennon – aka Tommy Robinson – and right-hand man Kevin Carroll, 41, are second generation Irish and have spoken in the past of their pride in their roots.
The EDL was formed in Luton, Beds, in 2009 and marches against Muslim extremism and Sharia law.
Around 1,500 people, many shouting racist chants, were at the latest protest in Luton on February 5.
Daily Star
