On 26 January 2011, One Law For All hosted a seminar entitled ‘Enemies not Allies’. Judging from the pre-publicity for this seminar, it seemed quite clear that the EDL would be in the firing line of criticism:

The One Law for All campaign is holding a seminar to expose how important debates including on Sharia law have been hijacked by the far-Right to promote their racist agenda, and by anti-racist and anti-war groups to defend Islamism, both at the expense of people’s rights and lives. The seminar will focus on: The British National Party, the English Defence League, Stop Islamisation of Europe (also Stop Islamization of America), the Stop the War Coalition, the Respect Party, and Unite Against Fascism.

The EDL was not invited to take part in this seminar even though it was one of the organisations being discussed, but Douglas Murray was. In his speech at the seminar Mr Murray called for unity amongst those opposing sharia and suggested that groups should not be excluded out of hand. He referred to the EDL specifically:

‘The English Defence League, when they started protesting, had banners saying things like, you know, “sharia law discriminates against women”, “sharia law is anti-gay”, well I’m good with both of those sentiments, I’m sure most people in this room are. If you were ever going to have a grassroots response for non-Muslims to Islamism that would be how you’d want it – surely!’

The video footage of his speech can be found below:

This sort of speech might not have been exactly what One Law for All had in mind when it invited him, but invite him they did and they showed him respect while he their guest. We hope that people present took some of the points made by Mr Murray on board – they were sensible, practical points.

We do not believe everything that One Law for All stands for, they clearly object to at least some of our positions. However, that does not mean that we cannot work together. It does not mean that we cannot put them in touch with some of our allies overseas who they might be more comfortable working with. It is important that One Law for All puts itself into a position to influence the global Counterjihad by contributing thought provoking ideas that expand its perspective and provide it with new approaches and thus alternative ways to solve the problems at hand.

The following video clip shows another contribution at the seminar from Douglas Murray and it also shows a contribution from One Law for All spokesperson, Maryam Namazi:

Ms Namazi made some fair points but then went on to level implied criticism of the EDL, criticism that was unfair and unwarranted. The English Defence League has been far more instrumental in reaching people who the anti-racist and anti-homophobic groups of the left have not reached and would have never reached. Thanks to the EDL a greater swathe of the population understand that racism and homophobia are wrong. Working class people are working with middle class people, different ethnic groups are working together, people of different sexualities are working together, people from different parts of the political spectrum are working together, and people from different countries are moving forward in unity. People are working with and developing an understanding of individuals and groups who they would have never interacted with if not for our shared struggle against the tyranny of sharia.

We hope that One Law for All can begin to reconsider its position with regard to the EDL as we are open to their input. In any case, we welcome their contribution to the debate about sharia. Even if they do not want to work with us, we nevertheless wish them success in their opposition to sharia. They have stood up and been counted on this issue and for that they deserve our respect.