Riot worries stop football match
Luton Town FC has postponed a football match because the local force says it does not have enough free officers to police it.
By Maddy SavageNewsbeat reporter in Luton Bedfordshire Police believes protesters opposed to Muslim extremism are planning a demonstration that day, which may need a lot of their staff. The game against York was scheduled to take place on Saturday 12 September. Football fans in the town told Newsbeat they were disappointed. Tony, 18, said: "If police have enough time to catch speeders or hang around at train stations they should have time to look after our football matches." 21-year-old Lloyd agreed: "Luton is very multi-cultural. It's understandable that there are sometimes problems, but we should be able to have our fun, have our football matches." Street clashes The group planning the demonstration is called the English and Welsh Defence League. They clashed with a Muslim group in Birmingham last month. Tommy is one of their members: "We're protesting against extremists, a small section of the Muslim community, and the larger section should be backing us." There has already been tension between communities in Luton. Muslim protesters heckled soldiers at a homecoming parade in March and last weekend a planned march against Islamic extremists was stopped. Police had to break up a mob of 200 young people and some were caught throwing fireworks at police officers. "The racism in Luton has got worse," said 24-year-old Mohammed, who works in his brother's newsagent shop. "There is going to be a riot soon. I can feel it." He said his brother had recently been attacked and that he had been approached by extremist Muslim groups a few times, although he has no interest in joining them. Zina Ahmed is a 33-year-old community worker: "The police aren't allowing the protests but they keep going ahead. "Our Islamic leaders are actually telling people not to go out when these things are going on. But the youngsters aren't listening and that's what is causing the fights." Councillors and MPs in the area have been calling for the trouble to stop, but there are strong feelings on both sides. "I'm not racist," 21-year-old Gavin told Newsbeat. "But if they don't like it here they should just go back to their own country."