With the English Defence League’s leader Stephen Lennon languishing in a Norfolk prison, having been sentenced in January to 10 months (five in jail, five on license) for using a friend’s passport to enter the US, now is a very good time to ask: who exactly are the EDL? Where did they come from? Are they really an organic, grassroots street movement dedicated, as they continually claim, to peaceful opposition to extremist Islam in Britain? Is Lennon calling all the shots, or is he taking orders from elsewhere?
Lennon and the Zionists
The question of image and reality is especially relevant following information that came to light at the end of Lennon’s recent court case. During sentencing Judge Alastair McCreath intriguingly revealed that the name on Lennon’s passport is actually “Paul Harris” [1]. Lennon appears to be a man of many names – he is also known as “Stephen Yaxley-Lennon”, as well as using the pseudonym “Tommy Robinson”. If we cannot be sure of his real name, we do at least know that he has some very interesting connections.
Lennon’s arrest followed his illegal entry into the US last September to attend a conference organised by notorious Islam-hating Zionists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, whose “anti-Jihadist” organisation Stop Islamization of Our Nation –SION! – he is a board member.
EDL or IDL?
Lennon’s attendance at a Zionist-organised conference should come as no surprise, because the English Defence League have openly pledged loyalty to Israel. In an article posted on the EDL website and published on Geller’s ‘Atlas Shrugs’ blog in June 2011 [2], Lennon made his devotion to the Jewish state perfectly clear:
“One of the fundamental beliefs that this movement was built on was its support for Israel’s right to defend itself. In our first demonstrations, we went to Birmingham, and we flew the flag of Israel, the Star of David. In the first public speech I ever gave, I wore the Star of David in Leeds. The reason for this is because Israel is a shining star of democracy. If Israel falls, we all fall.”
A ‘politically correct’ nationalist movement
The EDL coalesced out of small groups connected to Luton’s football gangs, and Lennon’s peculiar statement seemed highly incongruous. The ignorant football thugs amongst the EDL’s rank and file had quite likely never given Israel a second thought – defending England from “Muslamic” terrorists was their primary concern. Why was a foreign flag being flown alongside St. George’s cross at rallies?
Since when had defending England meant championing diversity and multiculturalism? The EDL website hosted images of a multiracial organisation, its leaders made a point of stressing the movement’s diversity and support for minorities who were not Muslim, and the group has at various times operated a Pakistani Christian Division, Jewish Division, Sikh Division, Disabled Division, and even a LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Division [3]. This image of a liberal, open-minded EDL jarred with reality, as many of its members were actually hostile towards ethnic minorities.
It seemed almost as if the EDL had an astute public relations department, working hard to make the movement seem less offensive in the eyes of the public.
Alan Lake, wealthy mastermind behind the EDL
The man responsible for the direction of the EDL was “Alan Lake” – real name, Alan Ayling. Ayling, a wealthy businessman and rabid anti-Muslim with close links to SION’s Geller and Spencer, formed the EDL with the express intention of using them as a puppet army, to physically confront Muslims on the streets.
Ayling spelt out his agenda during a speech at a seminar on Islamisation in Malmö, Sweden, on September 6th 2009, where he openly admitted to using “the physical groups”, the football lads, to bulk up – in terms of both size and muscle – anti-Muslim protests [4].
He made his intentions equally clear in a Guardian article that same month:
“We are catching a baby at the start of gestation…We have a problem with numbers. We have an army of bloggers [in the far-right] but that’s not going to get things done…Football fans…are a hoi polloi that gets off their backsides and travels to a city and they are available before and after matches.”
The founding meeting of the EDL even took place in Ayling’s expensive London flat; he is accurately described when called the group’s financier and strategist.
Words of violence, and defence of terror
The EDL claim to support peaceful opposition to Islam, yet Ayling’s language has been anything but peaceful. Writing on his 4Freedoms website in May 2010, he casually talked about the torture and execution of alleged pro-Muslim British political and religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg. Referring to the Islamic enclaves that he believes will exist in Britain in 20 or 30 years time, Ayling wrote that by [5]:
“forcing these liberal twits into those enclaves, we will be sending them to their death at worst, and at best they and their families will be subjected to all the depredations, persecution and abuse that non-Muslims worldwide currently ‘enjoy’ in countries like Pakistan… It will be great to see them executed or tortured to death.”
Anders Behring Breivik, the nationalist terrorist who murdered 77 in Norway on July 22nd 2011, was a keen follower of the anti-Jihadist bloggers featured on Ayling’s website. Breivik praised the EDL in his manifesto and posted on forums linked to the group [6]. Following the Norwegian terror attack Ayling was actually questioned by police, keen to establish whether he might be the English mentor “Richard The Lionhearted” – of whom Breivik speaks admiringly in his sprawling manifesto.
Whilst Ayling was released without charge by police, some continue to allege that he is indeed “Richard The Lionhearted”. Most prominent amongst them is Paul Ray, a disgruntled former EDL member who had been present at the group’s founding meeting in Ayling’s flat. Ray had the misfortune to blog using the name “Lionheart”, and so naturally became a person of interest to the authorities in the aftermath of Oslo and Utoya. He flew voluntarily to Norway from his home on Malta to be interviewed by police, and continues to claim that he was set up by Alan Ayling, who he believes to be the real “Richard” – though his evidence seems entirely circumstantial.
Ayling made sure to publically condemn Breivik’s attack but also described it as “chickens come home to roost” [7]. He wasn’t the only member of the EDL to exploit the Norwegian’s murderous attack.
Ayling’s associates
Ayling’s friend Roberta Moore headed the EDL’s Jewish Division, until she became a little too outspoken about her extremist anti-Muslim, pro-Zionist beliefs. A Brazilian-born Jew, Moore is believed to have been responsible for Stephen Lennon’s appearance at a September 2011 EDL demonstration, from which he’d been banned by police but which he managed to sneak into by absurdly disguising himself as a Rabbi.
Moore’s comments during Breivik’s trial were highly disturbing. In April 2012 she wrote an article published on the Jewish Defence League UK’s blog, in which she described Breivik’s trial as a “kangaroo court” and defended him against charges of child murder by repeating his defence that the victims had actually been young adults attending an “indoctrination camp”, who were “not innocent”. She then stated:
“I hold the same amount of sympathy for…those on Utoya as I would if somebody committed this act on a Hitler Youth camp in the 1940’s, or were they just ‘children’ as well?”
The EDL did not distance themselves from Moore’s outrageous comments, and for some time she continued to run their official Jewish Division Facebook page to spread anti-Muslim hate speech.
Lennon himself appeared on BBC2’s Newsnight to discuss Breivik’s attack, and at the end of the interview Jeremy Paxman did a startled double take when Lennon appeared to make a veiled threat about a similar future attack “on British soil” [8].
Rabbi Nachum Shifren
Rabbi Nachum Shifren is another Zionist with connections to the EDL. Shifren has attended and given speeches at EDL demonstrations [9], once served in the Israeli Defence forces, fitness trained Israeli paratroopers, and was reportedly Rabbi Meir Kahane’s driver [10]. Kahane was the founder of the extremist US-based Jewish Defence League, and he was once described as preaching “a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism” – ironically by the notorious pro-Jewish pressure group the Anti-Defamation League!
The EDL’s puppetmasters and the Neocon agenda
Whilst this article can only scratch the surface of the EDL’s story, it should by now be apparent that the movement is not what it claims to be. Powerful and wealthy strategists, working to realise the goals of Zionist extremists in the US, were fundamental in the development of the organisation.
The rowdy working class men on the streets were brought together, funded and organised to add a physical street-level presence to a war that had previously only been fought by non-working class Zionist keyboard warriors in the anti-Muslim bloggersphere.
It was never an organic, grassroots movement – and it does not represent the best interests of the English or British people.
No doubt many who joined the EDL believed that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – but the people pulling the strings of the EDL are anything but friends of the British people. Ayling, Geller, Spencer and co. are responsible for enabling an utterly ruthless, immoral and destructive agenda for global domination – a Neocon plan to “secure the realm”, and the world’s resources, at the expense of whoever might be unfortunate enough to get in their way.
The warmongering American-Israeli Neocons and their associates and successors – the people behind the imperial Project For A New American Century – maintain a powerful influence on US and UK foreign policy. Motivated by the acquisition of even more wealth and power and an unwavering support for Israel, this powerful shadow elite, aided and abetted by their public puppets in government, has over the last decade waged a series of criminal and catastrophic wars.
The invasion of Afghanistan was launched on the premise that it would catch Bin Laden and stop “Al Qaeda” – despite the fact that the US had two decades earlier funded, trained, and armed the very militants that became Al Qaeda under Operation Cyclone.
It’s not within the scope of this article to detail the innumerable ways in which the Anglo-American-Israeli criminal elite has in recent years exploited the threat of Islamic extremism, to advance its imperial agenda. From supporting Jihadists and Osama Bin Laden in 1980s Afghanistan, through 9/11 and the questions of foreknowledge and stand-downs, to contrived underwear bomber patsies and provocateured dupes, to the backing of Islamic terrorists in Libya and Syria; when it comes to Muslim extremists the US and British governments have a long history of manipulation and deceit. Radical Muslims are appointed the enemy so that foreign interventions and invasions can be justified. The EDL perpetuates the myth of the Islamic terrorist threat, without ever mentioning Western Governments’ own ties to those very terrorists. On another level they do not even consider how our aggressive foreign policy of invading Muslim lands and backing ruthless Israel helps feed the extremist mindset in the first place.
In addition to the untold numbers of innocent civilians killed in Afghanistan, many British soldiers have lost their lives. The cost to the British taxpayer, obliged to fund the immoral, baseless and frankly illegal war, has been huge.
The invasion of Iraq was based entirely on lies about weapons of mass destruction. As in Afghanistan strategic control of territory and resources was one of the imperialists’ primary goals, and the removal of strongman Saddam Hussein, a regional threat to Israel, another. The Iraq war has not only murdered countless numbers of innocent civilians, it has killed hundreds of British servicemen and women. And the British people have paid for it all through taxation, compounding the national debt crisis that was brewing and is now here in full force. Today public services are being slashed and the poor and vulnerable are cold and hungry, yet we still manage to find funds for bombing campaigns and covert operations in lands far away from our own.
The attack on Libya and removal of Colonel Gaddafi was similarly manufactured, and entirely without justification. Yet another sovereign nation, once peaceful and stable lies in ruins after our “humanitarian intervention”. The imperial Neocon agenda marched on.
The criminals in power, and the criminals behind those in power, are currently attempting to overthrow the leader of yet another sovereign and formerly stable country – Syria, by hijacking a peaceful protest movement against the Assad regime by backing Islamic terrorists within their ranks and mercenaries from further afield, the kind of extremists we claim to be fighting elsewhere in the world. More taxes to fund more death, to make the already fantastically wealthy and powerful even wealthier and more powerful.
One of their ultimate goals is the removal of the Iranian leadership, and the installing of a pliant puppet government in a country which just happens to be hostile to Israel’s Zionist regime and allied with the former super power of Russia and emerging world power China; this without mentioning their massive reserves of oil and other natural resources.
How many British people will die in World War 3 against Iran’s nuclear-armed and vastly populated allies?
More war is exactly what those pulling the EDL’s strings are enabling – and there’s nothing remotely patriotic about supporting psychopathic imperialism!
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Brit Dee is a freelance political commentator from the UK, with an interest in the deeper causes of terrorism, and the danger of consolidation of power through globalization. He is now a regular contributor to WideShut.co.uk
