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One of my friends posted up a link to this article in the Telegraph, which is just one of several in the media about an incident which happened in Luton a few weeks ago. At the time you might have noticed that all of these articles were eerily similar - because modern reporting just involves looking at reuters and then adding emotive bits to tell
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My point with respect to your links is that these are not necessarily extremists, they are simply exercising their right to free speech in the way the many other groups have done before and since. The very fact it is filed under "Law and Order" in the telegraph and written in such partisan and emotive language illustrates my point quite neatly. People protesting verbally with placards aren't extremists - they are citizens exercising their democratic right to free speech. The established faith groups issue press releases distancing themselves from the groups who have attracted media attention because they are well aware of the dangers of allowing their groups to become associated with anything controversial at the moment. They shouldn't have to do this, but since the "war on terror" things have been a bit frightening for Muslims here. I know of several muslim people who have been kept for some time by the police during investigations and then eventually released without charge having lost their jobs and in some cases their homes. It may be within the law but it is still a type of persecution and people on the end of it are very aware of the threat.
I am not trying to say that every muslim is a saint - I've just been reading islam4uk which is batshit in several places - but in the places where I actually know what has been happening, the media portrayals are much worse than the actual events and serve to inflame people like the EDL
who in turn over react and make all of our lives more horrible.
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