LONDON: "Fear Allah. Gay-Free Zone"

An anti-gay Islamist group is accused of peppering East London with stickers declaring the area to be a "gay-free zone." The stickers include the warning: "Fear Allah."

Pictures of the stickers were sent in by a local resident, who said he tried to remove them. He told PinkNews.co.uk: “Tower Hamlets council won praise from Stonewall for its LGBT friendliness, but these stickers are a warning that Islamist extremists in Tower Hamlets have not gone away from London’s streets. “According to police figures, a homophobic crime is committed in Tower Hamlets at the rate of more than five a month.” The resident suggested that they may have been posted by members of Islam4UK, which has been accused of being a front for the banned Al Mahajaroun Group. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “There have been a series of homophobic threats and assaults by Asian youths on LGBT people in the East End over recent years. “I’ve been attacked by Muslim youths three times in and around Brick Lane. In all three attacks, the assailants shouted religious slogans. My LGBT Muslim friends who live in the area are nervous and anxious. They fear attack and dare not reveal their sexuality.”

One local LGBT activist believes the stickers are actually the work of a far-right anti-Islamic group such as the English Defence League, who may be seeking to inflame tensions between gays and Muslims.