Hanna-Mariam Chowdhury considers the recurring clashes outside the East London Mosque
The far right group Britain First has demonstrated outside the East London Mosque three times in the last two months.
The first time there were no more than ten protesters. The second time there were a few more. The most recent protest, though the biggest, still came across as nothing more than a pathetic attempt by a fringe group to stop Muslims from engaging in peaceful worship.
But whereas the first event was described in the Evening Standard as “hapless” and accompanied by a picture of a couple of burly men holding a limp banner, the last one was fronted by a picture of a young Muslim man meting out a flying kick.
You can see the same kick at the end of the film below, made for me by a friend. And at the start of the film you can also see someone throwing food.
As a peace-loving Muslim who was there, I found this type of behaviour – carried out by some of the Muslim men – unacceptable. Standing close to me one of them stuck his face aggressively in front of one of the protesters and challenged him to “Say something!”
This kind of provocative behaviour is not the way to go about tackling nationalist extremism, and distracts us from thinking about the intolerance of the protesters.
Many of us British Muslims have become accustomed to the hate directed at us, but it is our responsibility to respond by showing kindness and compassion. Our counterparts up in York set a great example to British Muslims in 2013, when in return for insults they offered members of the English Defence League tea and biscuits before nattering about football.
I truly hope that the next time Britain First show up at the East London Mosque, they are greeted by smiling Muslim faces.