The author of a report investigating how the English Defence League see religious groups like Jews, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus as a recruiting ground for their anti-Islam agenda, has spoken about the undue influence anti-Muslim tabloid stories have on the members.
H S Lane, who is using a pseudonym on the report she co-authored on the EDL on behalf of interfaith group Faith Matters, spent months corresponding with EDL activists, speaking to members on protests and monitoring social networks.
"They were all really accommodating actually," she told The Huffington Post UK. "When I asked them to explain how the EDL works, who its members are, they said to me 'I will tell you exactly how it is'.
Members of the EDL brandish pictures of Osama Bin Laden outside the US embassy to counter-protest a Muslim demonstration
"I felt they were telling the truth and trying to be genuine. Everyone I was introduced to I felt was telling the truth about what they believed and they were extremely passionate."
The media, especially the tabloid press, was constantly referred to by the activists as the basis for their anti-Muslim feeling, which disturbed Lane.
"It was misguided. Everyone would say things like 'Did you read that article in The Sun? The Muslims are trying to ban Christmas'. They had read a lot of things like that in papers. That was a basis for their anger.
"These pieces got them very worked up, and really angry. But it felt like the people I was speaking to had got the wrong end of the stick."
She added that she believed the movement had lost momentum. "It peaked a while ago. Now the focus is the links they want to forge internationally, at the expense of a focus on activists in the UK.
"They are splitting in many different directions."
She said she believed most of the everyday activists were "not exactly Combat 18. Some might put a pig's head outside a mosque, but they don't make bombs. It's not nice, but it's not terrifying.
"They go to the pub, get drunk and put a few rashers of bacon on the steps of a mosque or community centre, that's as bad as it gets. And they post a picture of themselves doing it on Facebook, and get loads of 'likes' from their friends."