The English Defence League issued the following public statement yesterday on the EDL’s official Facebook page where they finally confirmed that they are indeed motivated by racial reasons. A screenshot of the EDL’s statement can be seen here:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=202146116527702&set=o.174993392556452&type=1&ref=nf (The comments thread on that page includes a direct URL link to the EDL's official Facebook page where the public statement has been published).

Here is the full transcript of the EDL’s statement:

“In the last 66 years we as a nation, as a race have had our national identity stolen from us by politicians who have forced us to accept multiculturalism. They have and still are practicing cultural genocide on their own people, despite warnings that we will not accept it. They have forced us to accept the dilution of our heritage and history by the implementation of laws which will stop us from rising up, even if that’s just to voice an opinion.

Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving us of our integrity as distinct peoples, or of our cultural values or ethnic identities. Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of the rights of the native or indigenous people. Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on us by legislative, administrative or other measures is cultural genocide.

And unless we find our backbone and stand up to the ones who are committing crimes against the English people we shall continue to be subjected to slavery by a British elite aided by outside influences whose only intention is to destroy us from within and wipe us out as a race.”

So much for the EDL’s previous claims that they are not racially-motivated and are opposed “only to extremist Muslims”. The mask has finally dropped completely. The references to immigration and the alleged wiping out of the English “race” are, of course, particularly hypocritical when you bear in mind that EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon himself is actually the son of Irish immigrants.

The continuing escalation of the EDL’s public statements into full-scale extreme Far-Right racial rhetoric is not surprising. After all, EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka “Tommy Robinson”) is repeatedly on record as making references to “race” in order to justify his actions (see:  http://www.edlnews.co.uk/edl-news/edl-leader-continues-to-reveal-his-disturbing-attitudes), and his own PA Hel Gower is on record as openly supporting the BNP and the Neo-Nazi “British First Party” (see:  http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2011/5/7/edl-has-nothing-to-do-with-bnp-claims-guramit-singh.html).

The EDL’s statement also inadvertently confirms the findings of the recent academic report on the EDL by Dr Matthew Feldman and Dr Paul Jackson of Northampton University (see:  http://www.edlnews.co.uk/featured/edl-exposed-in-damning-academic-report), particularly the following conclusions on page 56 of the report:

“From the outset, among leaders and followers it is clear that the EDL has had sustained connections with the BNP and other extreme-right groups. Moreover, the EDL might profess itself a single issue, counter-jihadist movement, but its failure to adhere to this line leaves it looking like all previous racist extreme-right groups. This failure makes it even more difficult to ignore the neo-Nazi methods, antecedents and current connections of the EDL’s leaders and its followers.....The EDL engages in doublespeak that powerfully questions their claim to be a single-issue, non-racist movement.”

More information and analysis of this development is available via EDL News (see:  http://www.edlnews.co.uk/edl-news/edl-openly-embrace-white-supremacism) and Hope Not Hate (see:  http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/article/1482/the-edls-english-problem).