Bradford’s Council for Mosques has backed the Telegraph & Argus campaign supporting calls for a ban on a proposed English Defence League rally in the city.
The EDL has planned to flood the streets with thousands of supporters during August Bank Holiday weekend.
Today, Muslim leaders in Bradford called on all of the city’s diverse communities to stop any groups “disrupting the peace”.
A spokesman for the Council for Mosques said in a statement: “All communities in Bradford must unite to say that EDL or other organisations of its type are not wanted in Bradford.”
He said that the Council for Mosques was united in its determination to keep such elements out of neighbourhoods and the city.
“EDL is committed to disrupting the peace and harmony of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities,” he added. “They do this through propaganda, which encourages and incites racial and religious hatred, and by setting communities against each other. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into their web of hatred.”
The Council for Mosques is working with Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police and Bradford District Faith Forum, as well as voluntary groups, to make people aware of EDL tactics.
A campaign against the rally has been started by groups under the Bradford Together Banner and is backed by politicians in the city, business and faith leaders, academics and members of the public.
Khadim Hussain, president of the Council for Mosques, said: “Some people may think that EDL is only targeting Muslims and that therefore they should not get involved.
“The EDL is against everyone who does not fit into their misguided and false definition of what constitutes Britishness.
“This time its Muslim; next time it will be someone else. Therefore, let us work together – Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, humanists – to say to EDL: ‘We are not interested in your type of politics’.”
The Telegraph and Argus
