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Both the would-be terrorists who plotted the Dewsbury attack and the EDL rely on each other to incite their supporters' hatred
On Tuesday six men pleaded guilty to planning a terrorist attack on an English Defence League rally in Dewsbury. Had the attack, which was stopped by chance, gone ahead it would have almost certainly led to a large number of casualties and had a profound impact on the EDL and wider British society. The fact that these attackers chose to target the EDL, and the reaction of some EDL members, reminds us of extremists' most important allies: their enemies.
Those who planned this attack deliberately chose to target an EDL demonstration, not because this was a public gathering of random people like at the Boston marathon, but specifically because of who the EDL are and what they represent. A far-right street movement, the EDL emerged in Luton in the spring of 2009 from a series of loosely defined movements that drew on football hooligan networks for support. It was launched specifically in response to a March 2009 protest by the Islamist group al-Muhajiroun against a homecoming parade for troops returning from Afghanistan, and today still claims to "peacefully protest against Islamic extremism".
The EDL has operated outside of the political system, deploying mass mobilisation, or the threat of mobilisation, as its major means of influence. EDL marches regularly turn violent and they are broadly condemned by anti-fascist campaigners who mobilise counter-demonstrations in the thousands. These have at their best been peaceful and powerful reminders of respect for diversity from the majority, but in other cases have escalated into violent confrontations. Despite this, the EDL continues to organise marches and demonstrations in towns with large Muslim communities, picking up on local tensions or grievances, and inflaming them. Marchers don the cross of St George and claim to patriotically defend English identity, promote human rights, and protect the future of English children.
In this sense the EDL makes the perfect target for jihadists, not because they are on the fringes of British society, but because, in the eyes of the would-be bombers, the EDL represents the distilled essence of what it is to be English. A letter left by the terror group was addressed to enemies of Islam, the Queen and David Cameron. The fact that this group chose to address the EDL alongside two recognisable symbols of Britishness demonstrates their view of the EDL and its derogatory approach to Islam as something intrinsically British. The EDL for its part views the conspirators not as outliers of their own communities, but as representing all that is wrong with Islam.
This is a long-running trend. As long as extremism has existed, groups from around the world have defined themselves by their enemies.
Members of the Against Violent Extremism network, a global network of former extremists managed by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, have made this point repeatedly. For example, Maajid Nawaz and TJ Leyden, a former Islamist and neo-Nazi respectively, spoke out on this issue, with Nawaz saying: "TJ and I have often spoken … of the symbiotic relationship our two former movements have with each other, they reinforce each other. Whereas we would sit there and say 'All non-Muslims hate Muslims and want to annihilate Muslims', we'd use these guys as evidence. They would say the opposite and use us as evidence. We were citing each other."
With the rise of the internet, commentators and researchers have focused increasingly on extremist echo chambers online, where viewpoints go unchallenged and are constantly reinforced by a self-selecting group of believers. Extremists on social media platforms such as Twitter often follow those people they believe to be their enemies, reinforcing their views of an entire group as "the other". The starkest example of this recently was a flame war that erupted on Twitter between the EDL and al-Shabaab, a Somali insurgent group allied to al-Qaida. Both groups attacked the other and used the responses as evidence of the barbarism of their opponents. In responding to provocative acts by Islamists, EDL members have not contented themselves with tweets: two men from the EDL and BNP were sentenced to 10 years in prison after setting fire to a Stoke-on-Trent mosque, as revenge for the burning of poppies by members of Muslims Against Crusades on Armistice Day.
The EDL and the wider "counter-jihad" movement will attempt to use this planned attack as proof of the righteousness of their cause, indeed a cursory glance at their social media presence shows they are already doing just this. In the short term we are likely to see a rise in the numbers turning up to EDL marches. Just as the London marathon saw more supporters come out to show support after the Boston bombings, EDL members are likely to wish to prove that they will not be intimidated. In the medium term, an event like this might strengthen a movement that has fragmented recently and suffered a massive drop in the number of activists willing to turn up for demos.
We need to ensure that the EDL has a right to legal and peaceful protest, but also that Muslim communities do not face repercussions for the actions of those who claim to act in their name. The aim of extremists, both violent and non-violent alike, is to divide communities and dehumanise their foes: the most effective way to push back against all forms of extremism is for communities to come together and realise their similarities outweigh their differences.