Londoners to Counter Hate With Love

Some residents of London's East End are planning to cover antigay signs recently posted around the neighborhood with messages of love, Pink News reports.

The antigay posters say, "Arise and warn. Gay free zone. And fear Allah; verily Allah is severe in punishment." They were put up on buildings and lampposts near gay bars, and also near a school and on a busy commercial street.

Wendy Richardson, an actress who lives in the area, said she and four friends plan to cover the homophobic messages with posters bearing quotes about love and inclusion from writers and activists such as Anais Nin, Anne Frank, Coretta Scott King, and Rikki Beadle-Blair. Richardson said her group will meet at 9 a.m. Friday outside Shoreditch Town Hall to start work, and she invited any interested parties to join them.

"It's really important to stand together and say 'less hate please,'" Richardson told Pink News. She added that she thinks the antigay signs were not necessarily the work of Islamic fundamentalists, but "just somebody hateful."

The East London Mosque and the Tower Hamlets Council, a neighborhood governmental body, are expected to issue a joint message Wednesday condemning the antigay posters, which the Muslim Council of Britain called "wrong and not in keeping with our Islamic teaching to respect our neighbours," according to Pink News.