A PROTEST group that tours the country staging “anti-jihad” demonstrations is planning a rally in Wembley against a Muslim peace conference.

The English Defence League (EDL) is recruiting members for the demonstration outside Wembley Arena on Saturday, June 26.

The protest is aimed at the Al-Khair Peace Convention 2010, being organised by Muslim charity the Al-Khair Foundation to “remove misconceptions, false fear and hate of Islam and Muslims globally”.

During the weekend, the internet has been flooded with EDL supporters spreading the word about the protest and recruiting people to come along.

A Facebook group with 91 members states EDL's aim to “pull out all the stops to get a huge turnout for this event” which will oppose “any form of Islamic misogyny, hatred, intolerance, violence and oppression”.

EDL has picked out Dr Nakir Zair, president of the Islamic Research Foundation, an Indian-based charity set up in 1991 to try to raise awareness of the ideals behind Islam, for particular criticism.

Dr Zair, a keynote speaker at the conference, is labelled by the EDL as an “Islamist apologist” who is responsible for organising “stealth jihad” under the pretense of talking about peace.

The EDL demonstration, planned between 2pm and 8.30pm, could face opposition from Unite Against Fascism (UAF), a protest group that regularly turns out to EDL events.

UAF and EDL regularly stage opposing demonstrations, which have at times spilled out into violence and disorder.

Members of the two groups stood across from each other outside Harrow Central Mosque in December last year at the second protest organised by anti-Islam group Stop the Islamisation of Europe.

The event passed off peacefully thanks to a heavy police presence, but other events are not so peaceful, most notably in April in Dudley where violent scuffles broke out at the site of a planned mosque in the West Midlands town.

Brent Green Party member and UAF activist Martin Francis wrote on his blog: “The fact that the EDL wants to protest at an attempt at dialogue speaks for itself.

“Discussions on how to combat the EDL's unwelcome presence in Wembley will be discussed over the next few days by Brent and Harrow Unite Against Fascism and other organisations.”

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