Boston bomb grafitti: a smear campaign backfires?

It started with a story in the Cambridge News saying both the city’s Green Dragon pub and Greene King brewery had issued a statement saying that the English Defence League was no longer welcome to hold meetings there. The reaction was probably not that hoped for – even opponents of the EDL voiced dismay that self-acclaimed "anti-fascists" now demand everybody hand them a statement of political and sociological beliefs before going for a pint.

But much worse was to come. On April 14 a terrorist bomb ripped through the Boston marathon. Press disinformation started immediately, with the media stating it was Patriots’ Day, implying the perpetrators would be admirers of America’s founding fathers (patriots) dismayed at the directions their country is taking. As Whiteout Press points out, Patriots’ Day is April 19.

On the tails of this disinformation, graffiti appeared at Cambridge’s mosque site: "For the murderous scum bags. What were you thinking? Hitler tried terror and failed as will you".

Except, Cambridge EDL has disowned the graffiti. We do not oppose peace-loving Muslims but Jihad and Sharia, and we express that opposition on demos and in blogs: not graffiti.

According to Big Brother Watch, Cambridge City Council spent over £4.9 million on CCTV between 2007-2011. Mill Road is a main artery. Where are the photos of people drawing graffiti on this highly-contested site?

As it turns out, the Boston bombers were Jihadis, and if this was an "antifascist" smear-campaign, it smears all Cambridge Muslims as Jihidis, as well as spitting on the people of Boston.

And where are the denunciations of the EDL on the Greene King website and Green Dragon site? Why have news outlets of all political shades ignored this story?

Surely the Cambridge News owes its readers an answer to this question: how thoroughly has it researched these two stories?

Gerry Dorrian
300 words

With thoughts and prayers for the fallen and wounded of Boston.

Resources

Greene King in warning over EDL meetings at Cambridge pub - Cambridge News

Anger at vandal attack on mosque site after Boston bombs - Cambridge News

Greene King website

Green Dragon (Chesterton, Cambridge) webpage

Big Brother Watch: The Price of Privacy - identifies Cambridge City Council as 7th highest spender in UK on CCTV