Last year we ran a piece on former English Defence League activist Andy Hughes, proprietor of the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog, whose articles denouncing the Islamist threat to western civilisation are regularly crossposted at the notorious Islamophobic blog Harry's Place.

We pointed out that, in addition to declaring his admiration for convicted thug Joel Titus, the ex-leader of the EDL's youth section, Hughes had made antisemitic comments on the Expose Facebook page under the pseudonym of Arry Bo. Expressing his dislike of "Yids" who "think they are superior beings and the rest of us are scum", Hughes wrote that this explained "why Jews have been kicked out of so many countries" .

Given HP's readiness to denounce opponents of the state of Israel as antisemites, you might have thought they would be quick to dissociate themselves from Hughes and his vile remarks. But no. Sarah Annes Brown, who presents herself as the voice of reason at Harry's Place (competition isn't exactly fierce), happily accepted Hughes' laughable explanation that in posting these antisemitic comments he was simply trying to wind people up. She attributed this to the fact that Hughes is "a bit – skittish"!

Earlier today Hughes joined a discussion at Expose, posting comments under one of his other aliases, Arry Ajalami. Although he has in the past insisted that he has broken with the EDL and rejects its current methods and ideology (which is why HP say they have no problem with publishing his articles), this didn't prevent Hughes from posting a number of comments that show he still identifies closely with this gang of racists and fascists.

Even more disgusting, however, was Hughes' reaction to the posting of a screenshot from the EDL LGBT Division's Facebook page, in which one EDL supporter advocated a sexual assault on Expose admin Darcy Jones. A denunciation of "these muslim dogs and the liberal garbage who protect them", was followed by: "Let them rape Darcy. She likes these dogs so much."

Hughes' response was: "Well my cousin's mate was raped and she said it wasn't THAT bad. She didn't like it but said it wasn't as bad as when she got beaten up by a gang of Muslims." Quite rightly, the comment was almost immediately removed, but not before Expose had taken a screenshot which can be viewed here. You'll notice, by the way, that Hughes had adopted the National Front logo as his profile picture.

Over the past week Harry's Place has been making hay over the Socialist Workers Party's failure to deal properly with an accusation of rape against one of its leading figures. Before that, HP attacked George Galloway over his remarks trivialising the rape charges against Julian Assange. So you might think that, in all consistency, they would have to sever links with Hughes over his own reprehensible views on sexual violence and cease crossposting articles from his Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog.

But, again, this would almost certainly be a mistaken assumption. If you're prepared to assist in the witch-hunting of Muslim organisations, then you can announce your admiration for a violent hooligan, express atrocious antisemitic views, declare your support for a street movement of anti-Muslim thugs, claim that being raped isn't such a bad experience after all, and you'll probably get a free pass from Harry's Place. They'll put it all down to your skittish personality.

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The racist-promoting, terrorism-supporting Zionist blog Harry's Place has always been keen to expose the online pseudonyms used by its opponents, but this hasn't prevented its own contributors from hiding behind various aliases. Over the past week, however, two of HP's contributors have emerged blinking into the light of day.

Over at the Huffington Post, HP regular "Abu Faris" has posted an article under his own name, Ben Jefferies, attacking Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Jefferies denounces the Muslim Brotherhood as "clerical fascists in zealot beards and man-nighties who think that rape-victims were asking for it, Jews are to blame for everything, Christians should not be allowed to be president and homosexuals should be thrown off mountains".

You'll note Jefferies' assumption that beards on Arabs are a sign of religious fanaticism and his sneering description of non-western clothing as "man-nighties". He then proceeds to express his contempt for the Egyptian people as a whole. The only reason the Muslim Brotherhood came to power, according to Jefferies, is that "the general population is so apathetic it can barely bring itself to vote with even a semblance of freedom – and when it does shamble off to the ballots, it votes for bug-eyed religious bigots who genuinely believe that God is talking to them and all the world's ills are largely the fault of Jews".

Most people would regard such statements by a white European, particularly one who is actually working in Egypt among the very people he so despises, as distasteful at best if not verging on xenophobia and racism. Yet this passage was happily reproduced by "Alan A" (a pseudonym used by longtime HP contributor David Toube, though in his case he hasn't admitted to it yet) when he recommended Jefferies' piece to HP readers.

Another HP contributor to cast aside his cloak of anonymity last week was the individual behind the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog, with whose assistance HP has recently organised two disgraceful campaigns against Islamic events in London and Yorkshire, resulting in their cancellation due to threats of violence by far-right thugs (see here and here).

The author of the IFRB blog, it turns out, is a former English Defence League activist named Andy Hughes, who has previously operated under the names Harry Burns and Arry Bo. In a comment posted on the deLiberation website Hughes outed himself as the IFRB blogger and in a subsequent exchange with Richard Batholomew confirmed his earlier use of the Harry Burns pseudonym. (That Hughes is also Arry Bo can be verified from the URL to his Facebook page, which appeared under that moniker until Hughes recently decided to dispense with it and use his real name instead.)

Last year Hughes was one of two former EDL members billed as speakers at a Quilliam Foundation event (which fell through after his friend Leighton Evans not only refused to condemn the EDL but did an interview with the Guardian in which, to quote Evans' own words, he "gave the EDL their biggest rave review"). The advertisement for the event provided the following potted bio of Hughes:

"Harry Burns was formerly a senior member of EDL's London division. Within London he helped to mobilise members and organise transport for demonstrations outside of London. He was also involved in the group's logistics and its online activism, helping to run their youth website. He was present at many of their early London meetings."

So, not exactly a naive individual on the fringes of the organisation who wouldn't have known that it was riddled from the start with racist thugs and fascists.

Although he says he left the EDL two years ago after he discovered that it hated Muslims, Hughes retains his connections with individuals who have played prominent roles in the movement and in some cases still do. His Facebook friends include Guramit Singh, Darren Lee and former EDL Youth leader Joel Titus.

In a response to an earlier piece on Islamophobia Watch where we drew attention to these links, Hughes airily dismissed their relevance before going on to deliver the following encomium to Joel Titus: "Nice fella, not afraid to get his hands dirty (so what), had his head screwed on, his EDY website only ever covered extremists, no bollocks about halal, rape gangs etc, left EDL himself, still chat once in a while, intelligent kid – best of luck to him." Yes, he's referring to this Joel Titus.

The hangover from Hughes' days in the EDL evidently extends to ideology too. In a recent Facebook comment on a BBC news report, "EU states 'must be multicultural'", Hughes wrote: "Fuck multiculturalism and world culture. England and Britain have their own distinctive cultures." He accepted the existence of what he called "sub cultures within Britain" but objected that they were being accorded equal status "because these cultures are from other countries and that's the be all and end all for some people". Hughes went on to express his disillusionment with the existing "patriotic parties" (a term applied by their supporters to parties of the far right) and added: "If a sensible one came along everyone I know would vote for em."

However, to be fair, when Hughes criticises "sub cultures" for failing to accept their subordinate place within British society he isn't just talking about Muslims. He has a problem with Jews too. During the fall-out from the cancellation of Quilliam's EDL symposium last year, Hughes posted the following comment on the Expose Facebook page by way of explanation of his differences with the EDL:

Challenged by his critics over the latter remark, Hughes offered this defence:

And this is the man who asks us to believe that his campaigns against Islamic community events are motivated by a principled opposition to far-right extremism of all varieties.

Still, Hughes does have his supporters. Only today, over at Harry's Place, one admirer posted the congratulatory comment "Keep up the great work, Andy Hughes". It was none other than "Abu Faris".

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The York newspaper The Press reported yesterday that the "Islamia Village" event that was due to be held near the city at Thorpe Underwood Estate over the bank holiday weekend had been called off at the last minute after the estate's Trustees cancelled the booking.

This decision followed an extended campaign against Islamia Village, based on the claim that it would be hosting extremist preachers. The Islamophobic blog Harry's Place, which had initiated the campaign, immediately posted a piece yesterday afternoon claiming victory for itself and its supporters.

The obvious question that arises is – why was Islamia Village called off so late in the day? After all, Harry's Place took up the issue well over a month ago, back on 13 July, when it crossposted a piece from the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog condemning the event. What changed over the past few days?

Yesterday the Islamia Village organisers issued a statement pointing out that groups including the English Defence League had been demanding for some time that the booking should be cancelled. However: "The campaign had intensified at the beginning of the week, whereby such groups had threatened to cause violence at this weekend's event. Threats of burning down the venue with the people in it have also been made publicly by some supporters of this campaign."

A series of comments posted at HP by a spokesperson for the Trustees of Thorpe Underwood Estate outlining the reasoning that led them to cancel the event sheds further light on this.

Up until this week, it seems, all was proceeding well. According to the Trustees' spokesperson: "This booking WAS checked out with ALL the relevant Government bodies possible and opinion sought as to whether the booking should have been refused. Rather than say, suggest or even infer that perhaps it would be sensible to say 'no', the responses were given as 'positive to proceed'."

The Trustees were not necessarily insisting on banning individuals because of what they were alleged to have said in the past but asked for assurances that speakers would not be engaging in hate speech at Islamia Village. The event organisers, for their part, had made it clear that they were prepared to compromise over the question of speakers and offer the required assurances. The Trustees' spokesperson emphasised that "the event was NOT cancelled because the organisers would not agree to what was being asked of them".

The spokesperson confirmed the organisers' account of the prospect of far-right violence, stating that "the threat to 'burn the buildings down with everyone in them' was made in a 'comment' on a 'Casuals Unlimted' [sic] blog site page". The Casuals (who operate as a particularly thuggish faction within the EDL) had also announced that they would be holding a protest at the event, along with other far-right groupings such as the National Front, Combined ex Forces and the Infidels (the latter two organisations being neo-Nazi offshoots from the EDL), with all the potential for violent confrontation that this implied.

The Trustees' spokesperson stated that: "Safety of those attending probably accounted for 80% of the decision making process.... There was a point when we were almost there but other intelligence information received from Police meant we moved to cancellation." Further, by way of clarification: "The intelligence we received suggested those attending, not those organising, were at risk – given to us as 'clear and present threat'."

Another factor that "made the Trustees believe they had come to the end of the line in attempting to host a non-controversial event that would have been safe for all concerned attending" was that Queen Ethelburga's College on the Thorpe Underwood Estate was being targeted by campaigners:

"This event was nothing to do with Queen Ethelburga's College in any way. Regretably within the most recent 72 hours, the focus seemed to be intent on saying this was an event AT Queen Ethelburga's. It was not. Queen Ethelburga's has 1100 pupils from over 45 different Countries and is multi-cultural in EVERY sense of the word. The Trustees of the Estate were very aware that intense bad publicity for an event THEY were hosting would damage the College unfairly. This was another reason the event was cancelled."

Not that this factor was separable from the issue of far-right violence and intimidation. The Yorkshire-based Nationalist Correspondant blog reported that the NF, CxF, Infidels and other fascist groups had all been harassing Queen Ethelburga's with emails and phone calls, threatening that "a massive protest would be held as close to the school as possible" if the Islamia Village event went ahead. In addition to this, "a contingent from Cxf, and the Infidels went to the Principles [sic] house on Wednesday night to have a 'face to face'."

Needless to say, the fascists are jubilant at their success in depriving hundreds of Muslim families of their anticipated weekend at Islamia Village, and self-congratulatory posts have appeared on far-right sites across the internet (see for example here, here, here and here). So much for HP's stupid assertion that "anti-Muslim hooligans ... will not, on this occasion at least, be claiming a victory for themselves on the back of others' hard work". Of course, given that the fascist campaign against Islamia Village was based entirely on material provided by HP and the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog (see for example here and here), you can understand why they might be in a state of denial over this.

You may have the feeling that we've been through all this before, and indeed we have. HP and its friends conducted the same sort of inflammatory campaign against a Muslim event that was due to be held at the Connaught Rooms in London in June. Here, again, it was the threat of far-right violence that was the primary factor in getting the booking cancelled.

Any responsible organisation would have concluded that questions about the alleged extremist views of speakers at Islamic events should in future be raised in a way that avoids fuelling violent anti-Muslim racism. Rather than learn any lessons from this earlier debacle, however, HP and its associates responded by denying any blame and lashing out against Islamophobia Watch because we had exposed their role in inciting fascist thuggery.

We would hardly expect anything else from Harry's Place, a notorious extremist blog whose politics may be gauged by the fact that its comments section has for years been infested with racists while one of its leading contributors happily endorses terrorist attacks on Iranian civilians. However, the HP/IFRB campaign was also supported by Hope Not Hate whose attack on Islamia Village was itself crossposted at Harry's Place.

As we have seen, the result of this campaign has been to give a boost to the Islamophobic far right, who were becoming increasingly demoralised by the decline in support for their anti-Muslim street protests. It has led to death threats against the Muslim families who would have attended the Islamia Village event and the intimidation of people at the venue where it was to be held. An organisation like Hope Not Hate whose central aim is to combat the far right should know better.

Update:  The following response from Thorpe Underwood Estate to a complaint about the cancellation of Islamia Village has been posted on the Islamic Awakening forum:

We regret too that this event was cancelled.

At all times we have been willing to negotiate, and discuss various aspects of this booking that was concerning others, with the organisers, and also with those from "outside" who expressed grave concerns.

All our meetings and discussions with the organisers were good, and agreement was either reached, or virtually reached, in most areas.

As a result of that, we kept resisting the constant, and sometimes abusive, threatening and vitriolic, arguments being piled upon us in huge quantities. In the space of just 48 hours, we went from Special Branch Police Officers suggesting to us; there may be a demonstration, but frankly it is quite possible no one will turn up, to perhaps 40 to 50 will turn up, to it is now looking like many hundreds will turn up.

We were then told as late as midday yesterday, that if we have gone from nothing to several hundred in 48 hours, where will we be in the end, with 48 hours still to go to the planned protest?

One person had suggested burning all our buildings with all the Muslims in them - this and several other specific threats of violence and intimidation are now being investigated by the Police and arrests may follow.

Still we held to the belief that the event could continue with Police safeguarding and that there would be nothing said by the speakers, that other non-Muslims could construe, as "hateful, threatening or proposing violence".

The final deciding factor was when it then became evident there was a belief that up to 50 or more, violent anti-Muslim type thugs, may have infiltrated the booking system.

They would thus be allowed legitimate access into the Estate to reside within the same boarding and sleeping accommodation and other parts of the venues, as would come our genuine guests.

They would then cause anything from public disorder to actual physical bodily harm, from within the venue, to the guests.

Whereas there are some strong looking Muslim men who would have been reasonably capable of defending themselves, that could not be said of women and children.

As a result of concern for the actual safety of those genuine Muslims attending, we no longer felt the risk was "manageable".

The Police confirmed to us that their response to this threat from inside, could only ever be, re-active not pro-active.

The Estate, upon making the regrettable decision to cancel the event, then did an immediate refund in full, to the penny, of all monies we had been paid by the organisers, back to them.

Everyone has lost out in this despicable affair. You have lost out, the organisers have suffered financially as they had invested much considerable time and money, and we as an Estate have lost out, as we too invested time and money in preparing, plus hosting up to 60 pre-event organisers, plus providing all the facilities and numerous phone lines and calls, all at no expense, to notify the hundreds of people of the cancellation. Even now we are caring, in a compassionate and sympathetic way, providing necessary sustenance, and other facilities, for those who may turn up, having not been aware of the cancellation. In the circumstances we have made no charge whatsoever for all of this actual hosting and costs incurred.

Regards

Thorpe Underwood Estate

Update 2:  Richard Bartholomew has posted an interesting piece on the cancellation of the Islamia Village event. He identifies the author of the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog (with what accuracy I don't know) as an individual named Harry Burns who was formerly a leading activist in the EDL's London division.

Update 3:  It would appear that Richard's identification of the IFRB author is accurate. "Harry" – real name Andy Hughes, apparently – has posted a comment confirming this. He claims piously that he wants to see a situation where "the Islamic far right is dealt with in the same way as the nationalist far right".

This from a man who until recently was himself an activist in the nationalist far right, and still has people like Guramit Singh and Joel Titus listed as friends on his Facebook page.

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Over at Harry's Place Hasan Afzal of British Muslims for Israel is crowing over the success of their campaign to secure the cancellation of next month's "Month of Mercy" conference at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London organised by the Al Muntada Trust.

As we have previously noted, the "call to action" issued by Harry's Place received an enthusiastic response from the racist thugs of the English Defence League and the associated hooligan group Casuals United.

Unsurprisingly, both the EDL and Casuals United share HP's glee over the cancellation.

It is interesting that Hasan Afzal makes no mention of the reason given by the Principal Hayley Group, the hotel operator responsible for the venue, for cancelling the booking. We are left to assume that it was the dangerous "jihadist" ideology of the Al Muntada Trust that led to the decision.

However, as you can see from the Casuals United screenshot, the explanation given by the venue operator was as follows: "The safety of our staff and guests is our absolute priority at all times. After careful consideration and liaison with the local police force we have taken the decision to cancel the booking."

I had emailed the Principal Hayley Group myself, urging them to reject calls to cancel the conference, pointing out that the people behind the campaign were extremists like the EDL and Harry's Place. This morning I received the same email quoted by Casuals United. 

I emailed back saying that I couldn't understand how a conference organised by an entirely peaceful organisation like the Al Muntada Trust could have compromised the safety of staff and guests at the Grand Connaught Rooms. I received the following explanation: "We cancelled the event due to the risk of public disorder, damage to our property and safety of our staff. This decision was made on Police advice."

So it wasn't the supposed "jihadist" ideology of the conference organisers that caused the cancellation of the booking – it was the threat of violence from opponents of the conference. In other words, Harry's Place managed to get the conference cancelled by mobilising far-right racist thugs against it. They must be really pleased with themselves.

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Where does the English Defence League get its ideological inspiration from? Well, obviously from the likes of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, with whom the EDL is jointly organising the launch of a "worldwide counter-jihad alliance" in Stockholm in August.

However, the international counterjihad movement is not the only source of inspiration for the EDL. They also take their cue from the terrorism-supporting Zionist blog Harry's Place, as is shown by their enthusiastic response to a "call to action" against a so-called "jihadist conference" in London next month, posted at HP by Hasan Afzal of British Muslims for Israel.

Meanwhile the football hooligan group, Casuals United, have announced that if the conference goes ahead they will be organising a protest to stop it along with the EDL and the United British Alliance.

This is by no means the first time that the thugs of the EDL have been inspired by Harry's Place, as we have pointed out before.

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