Updated at: 0129 PST, Sunday, August 29, 2010
BRADFORD: Thirteen men were arrested Saturday in the ethnically-mixed British city of Bradford as a far-right, anti-Islamist group clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators in the streets.Members of the English Defence League (EDL) threw bottles, stones and smoke bombs during violent scenes as police struggled to keep the two sides apart.
A heavy police presence largely contained the standoff but the protest raised fears of a repeat of race riots that rocked Bradford in 2001.
The government banned the EDL from marching through the northern English city amid fears of unrest.
They staged a "static" demonstration in a small area in the centre of the Yorkshire city, home to one of Britain's largest Pakistani communities, against what they claim is the expansion of radical Islam in Britain.
Police said fewer than 1,000 people turned up on each side.
Despite two cordons of police, the groups briefly got near each other and EDL members threw bottles, cans, stones and a smoke bomb over the barricades.
Chanting "give us our country back" and holding signs saying "no more mosques" and "no to sharia (law)", the EDL protesters were soon pushed back by police.
"We're against radical Islam, no other Muslims," EDL security chief Leon McCreery told media.
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