Fifth Annual Counterjihad Conference Held in London on 24 and 25 September 2011
The International Civil Liberties Alliance held its annual Counterjihad conference in London on 24 and 25 September 2011. This was the fifth in the series of conferences following on from Brussels (2007), Vienna (2008), Copenhagen (2009), and Zurich (2010).
As usual Baron Bodissey was present at the conference and he has published his account of the conference over at Gates of Vienna. Part of his article is posted below (for the rest of the article go to Gates of Vienna):
During late September the climate in London is often the same as it is here in Central Virginia. The two great sinusoidal curves of English and Virginian weather intersect each other at two points, one in the spring and one in the autumn. I arrived in England at the autumnal equinox, so the days in both places were the same length. The trees were also at the same stage in their color change, and temperatures were much the same. The main difference — aside from the considerably lower angle of the noontime sun in London — was that it rained far more here while I was gone, according to Dymphna.
Culturally speaking, however, I was in a different world. From the appearance of the streets in some of the areas I visited, I might as well have been in Karachi or Lagos. Cultural enrichment was everywhere — there were hijabed women on virtually every street, from Tower Hamlets to Bloomsbury, from Docklands to Luton.
East London and Luton were the most intensively Islamic, of course, and Luton is where I started my tour of the London area. As soon as I recovered from jet lag, I joined a group that went to visit English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson on his home turf.
Tommy took us all on a little tour of the most enriched areas of his town. Parts of Luton look like the Third World, except for the fact that the architecture is that of a working-class English industrial town. Halal grocers, kebab restaurants, clothing shops with headscarves in the display windows, mosques, signs in Urdu and Arabic — this is the modern face of Luton.
I didn’t take many photos, being worried that my raising the camera would attract the attention of passersby, who might then recognize their nemesis inside our car.
Interestingly enough, among the West Indian and African immigrants are a fair number of evangelical Christians. These brave people are willing to proclaim their faith openly in what must be a completely hostile environment — I saw a Christian center in a converted cinema, complete with a prominent lighted cross, right there in the midst of all the halal and hijabs.
Those must be some tough Christians.
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The biggest Counterjihad meetings were on Saturday and Sunday. Some of the participants arrived early, on Friday afternoon, and a group of us met up at the Tyburn Wetherspoons pub on Edgware Road. We spent the pleasant late afternoon sitting around at the outdoor tables, drinking pints and chatting.
This particular pub happens to be the place where two English Defence League supporters were stabbed on the evening of September 11, after the MAC demo and the wreath-laying at the American embassy. A notice posted on the window glass in the main doorway served as a reminder of what had happened:
[photograph of witness appeal notice can be seen at Gates of Vienna]
The Wetherspoons franchise is one of the few establishments that keeps its doors open when the EDL holds a demonstration nearby. Most places refuse to admit EDL people, or lock their doors and board up their windows the morning before the demo. But Wetherspoons outlets stay open and welcome members of the English Defence League.
The area around the pub — which is not all that far from Grosvenor Square, the location of the American embassy — didn’t seem particularly run-down or culturally enriched. Yes, there were plenty of Muslim passersby, veiled women with their brothers or their husbands and children. But that was true of virtually every other street in the city. Oxford Street, Duke Street, Pall Mall, Euston Road, Tottenham Court Road, Gray’s Inn Road, Caledonian Road — wherever we went, Muslims made their presence visually known.
One of the Londoners in the group explained that just a little farther up the Edgware Road was a virtual no-go zone, and that the men who attacked the EDL members in the pub had almost certainly come from there. We decided to take a sightseeing tour into the area before we left, but we lingered too long over our beer, and it started to get dark.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On the morning of Saturday September 24, a Counterjihad leadership meeting convened in central London. A number of people associated with ICLA were present, including Paul Weston, Aeneas, Gaia, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, KGS of Tundra Tabloids, Henrik Ræder Clausen of Europe News (English), Liz of Europe News (Deutsch), and other activists from North America and Western Europe. There were representatives from Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.
The importance of the meeting was underscored by the presence of several leaders of the English Defence League. Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll, and Jack Smith were among those who conferred for the first time with a cross-section of the European Counterjihad.
The most important topic of discussion concerned the current political situation in Britain. The unprecedented repression directed at the EDL and other dissidents demonstrates that the authorities are frightened by mass opposition to Islamization and sharia, and are determined to use any means to suppress dissent.
The violation of the civil liberties of ordinary Britons seems to be a matter of supreme indifference to the oligarchs who rule in Westminster. When dealing with the opponents of Multiculturalism, all three major parties seem to be in complete agreement: dissidents must be squashed at any cost.
Participants from the Continent gave their own perspective, relating the struggle against repression in Britain to the larger European struggle against the illiberal regime in Brussels. Opposition to the European Union goes hand-in-hand with resistance to Islamization, because the immigration regime that is destroying European nations is guided and encouraged by the EU.
Everyone agreed that we are now at a hinge of history. What happens in the next few months or years is crucial to the future of liberty, democracy, and European culture. Prompt action is required, because the worldwide financial crisis will soon reach a climax and limit our choices.
Various programs were discussed, including novel forms of protest, and — given the ideological bankruptcy of Labour, the Lib-Dems, and the Tories — the possible formation of a new political party in Britain.
The EDL leaders described the various hardships that they have had to endure at the hands of the authorities, both individually and as an organization. They also talked about their future activities, including a planned demonstration in Afghanistan.
Now that’s something I’d like to see.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
At lunchtime we adjourned for a meal, and then took a field trip over to Trafalgar Square to take in the Eid Festival (see my earlier post for more information on the occasion).
After a brief afternoon session, the participants took a break and then reconvened at a more informal location for drinks and dinner. several members of the British Freedom Party joined us for the occasion, and free-form discussions continued until late in the evening.
The BFP shares a major common interest with ICLA and the EDL: we all believe that mass immigration and Islamization will destroy our countries. This was the issue that preoccupied us over drinks and food in one of Central London’s innumerable multicultural districts.
The following day (Sunday September 25) the same group met in another location in London. This was a broader meeting, attended by a number of additional British participants, including another member of the BFP and a representative from UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party). We elaborated on the previous day’s topics in informal discussions, some of which took place in sub-groups over food and drink.
The meeting adjourned early in the evening so that those who had traveled long distances could make their way home.
[The full article can be found at Gates of Vienna]
