How the EDL went from rising hate group to splintered agitators

The EDL has been blamed for violent protests in Southport.

In the 15 years since it was founded, the English Defence League (EDL) has gone from feared National Front successor to a splintered collection of far-right rioters.

But its influence continues to have a direct impact on towns and cities across the UK – especially at moments when the atmosphere is particularly volatile.

It’s thought that supporters of the group are behind the recent chaotic scenes in Southport, which followed Monday’s horrific stabbing attack.

Police officers were injured as large groups of demonstrators targeted the Merseyside town’s mosque, throwing bricks and bottles while vehicles were set alight.

The ugly scenes of hatred and destruction were familiar from previous protests involving the EDL, dating back to its earliest incarnation in 2009.

Initially, it developed from a counter-protest organised after a group of Muslims in Luton announced they would be demonstrating during a parade of Royal Anglian Regiment soldiers who had returned from Afghanistan.

Those counter-protesters would later join with local football casuals to form a broader movement against what its leaders described as ‘radical Islam’.

Among those leaders was Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.

For four years, he was the driving force between the rise of the EDL, turning him into a widely recognised media figure and the group into the country’s biggest far-right street movement since the 1970s.

He and his supporters would regularly turn up at the scene of violent crimes either perpetrated or rumoured to be perpetrated by Muslims and declare that their religion was to blame for the bloodshed.

At the time, the EDL described itself as a ‘human rights organisation’ and claimed to be raising legitimate concerns about Islam on behalf of the UK’s white working class.

But its demonstrations were often marked by racist and Islamophobic chants, and regularly erupted into violence.

Robinson left the group in October 2013, saying extremist elements had grown out of control and street demonstrations were ‘no longer productive’.

Soon afterwards, the structure of the EDL began to crumble, and for the past 10 years it has largely survived in disparate bands that reappear around the country when tensions between communities are high.

In 2017, Mancunians shouted down demonstrators from the group who clashed with police following the Manchester Arena bombing.

A large protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley, Merseyside, in February last year is believed to have been organised by the group.

However, the most recognisable image of the EDL from the past decade is a picture taken in April 2017 by PA photographer Joe Giddens.

It shows a young woman from Birmingham named Saffiyah Khan grinning at Ian Crossland, Robinson’s successor as leader.

After the image went viral, Saffiyah explained she had gone along to a demonstration in the city to make sure Muslims and people of colour were kept safe.

She said: ‘Ian Crossland was poking his finger in my face, but I just stood there. I didn’t do anything, I wasn’t interested, that wasn’t my intention.

‘I couldn’t understand what was being said though to be honest, it was all very mumbled.

‘But I wasn’t scared in the slightest. I stay pretty calm in these situations. I knew they were trying to provoke me, but I wasn’t going to be provoked.’

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