By Cara Sulieman
ANGRY Scottish Defence League (SDL) organisers are already planning their next gathering in Scotland after attempts to stage a protest in Edinburgh at the weekend failed.
But the group has been hit by infighting over Saturday’s embarrassment with some members convinced “spies” fed information to the police and anti-fascist protestors.
Yesterday they announced that they will hold what they claimed would be a “respectful vigil” in Lockerbie.
They claim the March 27 gathering will be in protest against Kenny MacAskill, who they have branded a “traitor”, saying that the Justice Secretary denied the SDL freedom of speech.
“More careful”
But the group are growing paranoid, deciding to restrict membership to a trusted few after anti-fascist protestors tracked down their whereabouts on Saturday before they had the chance to demonstrate.
As a result, they are closing down their Facebook site and will only be revealing the meeting point for future gatherings to highly vetted individuals.
Bobby Millar, one of the administrators of the group’s Facebook profile, sent an email to all the members.
It read: “When someone new wants to join they have to be known by at least two members who at least have attended demos.
“This is not any disrespect to the people who have joined and like what we are doing but to them we must say its not fingers on the keyboards we need but feet on the streets at demos.
“It’s like the ob (Old Bill) knew everything that was happening. We think it’s because of Facebook its nothing personal to anyone apart from our groups being more careful.”
Lockerbie
He went on to admit that they weren’t organised.
He said: “The people who are left in the SDL we can pull more together and get things organised better.”
And on another website belonging to the group, they yesterday (Mon) announced that they would be staging a vigil in Lockerbie.
It is mainly in response to Kenny MacAskill’s speech at the Scotland United rally, where he said “this capital has a proud record of being open to all”.
They also condemn his decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, which is why they have decided to march in the town.
The SDL are the sister group to the English Defence League, which grew out of the football casual scene in Luton.
Muslim anti-war protestors at soldiers homecoming parades fuelled the fire, and the group was set up.
Purporting to oppose what they call the “Islamification” of the UK, they claim to be protecting the British way of life.
Dumfries and Galloway Police which covers Lockerbie is Scotland’s smallest police force.
They are likely to liaise closely with other larger forces who’s tactics proved so successful at the weekend.
