A new report issued on March 12 by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), located at Kings College London, details a growing pan-European far right network and the role that the English Defence League (EDL) is playing in helping to build the network. “The report details how the EDL and its partners have created pan-European umbrella groups through which they coordinate marches and campaigns, and transfer knowledge and tactics.” The report, titled “A Neo-Nationalist Network: The English Defence League and Europe’s Counter-Jihad Movement,” is based on fieldwork in the United Kingdom and across Europe, interviews with leading figures, and the analysis of thousands of documents and websites.

The ICSR press release quotes Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, one of the report’s authors, as saying: “The EDL has successfully exploited concerns about the sex grooming gangs in the north of England, turning the issue into one of Islam versus the West. They are consciously sharing these tactics with their partners in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other countries.”

As the report shows, the far right network has long had an extensive online presence but is now making efforts to move its activity from the virtual to the physical world. In this respect, Meleagrou-Hitchens argues, the EDL has been a role model and catalyst: “Tommy Robinson, the EDL’s leader, is considered a rock star by activists across Europe. They want him to help their own organisations to become like the EDL. There’s a danger that the United Kingdom will export this kind of vicious, far right activism to the rest of the continent.”

In addition, the report touches on how the movement has exacerbated community tensions in the United Kingdom and how it helps create the ideological milieu from which terrorists, like Anders Breivik, take inspiration.