Far right activists, led by Casuals United and Tony Curtis of the English National Resistance, will be holding a demonstration against a Muslim conference in Nottingham this weekend. They will be protesting outside the East Midlands Conference Centre at 1pm on Saturday 30th March.

In response to our previous article asking why they were coming, they have now seen fit to reveal that they are protesting the invitation of Haitham al-Haddad to speak at the conference. Previously they just told their followers to blindly follow their command to oppose the “hate preachers” and none of them asked questions. Blind obedience seems to be as alive and well in the far right as it was in the days of “just following orders” 1930s Germany.

The decision to oppose al-Haddad is not unreasonable, given that he has reportedly described Jews as “the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs” and believes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He has said that should a woman refuse to sleep with her husband, “angels will curse” her and has written in favour of the prohibition of musical instruments. That he is speaking at a family event and passing on these bigoted ideas is very disturbing.

But it is the utmost hypocrisy for former EDL members to be protesting this man. After all, Tony Curtis has supported the NWI recently, even though leader, John “Snowy” Shaw also believes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and extreme anti-Semitic ideas. Why is Curtis protesting a Muslim hate preacher but not the hate preacher in his own midst? We can also point the finger at Jeff Marsh, leader of Casuals United, who set up the the openly Nazi Welsh Defence League. Even the former leader of the EDL’s Jewish Division quit claiming that the organisation had been taken over by Nazis. The EDL has courted Jews when it has seemed politically useful but is now turning back to anti-Semites for support.

It’s also hypocritical for the far right to criticise al-Haddad’s sexist ideas and lack of respect for a woman’s sexual consent. EDL members have been exposed for promoting rape as a weapon against their enemies and local members were exposed by us for their misogynist and sexually predatory posts. Some of these men will be turning up to “oppose” al-Haddad’s views on women at the weekend, but their own are equally disgusting and backwards. Why aren’t Casuals and Curtis booting them out of the ranks? Maybe because they aren’t brown or bearded enough.

Al-Haddad should be opposed by the vast majority who find his views abhorrent, not this ragtag bunch of far right misfits whose own ideas are just as disgusting. It would be best if both al-Haddad and the racist, sexist, homophobes of the far right were sent packing.