Over the last year, a quasi-religious turf war has sprung up on the streets of London. Young, radicalized Muslim patrols are enforcing Sharia law in the capital. In reaction, far-right Christian patrols are also taking the law into their own hands.
Since the Woolwich killing, anti-Muslim rhetoric as been at an all-time high, and the right-wing Christian patrols are only exacerbating the rising tensions.
These two marginalized but potentially dangerous London subcultures believe that society has failed their communities enough that they are now taking to the streets to implement or defend their ways of life, according to their opposing politicized and religious ideologies.
The irony being that while their shared aggressive approach has resulted in media coverage and media panic, they ultimately are responsible for and justify each other's existence.
Alex Miller meets the leaders and footsoldiers in Britain's holy street patrols—the Anjem Choudary's followers' Muslim Patrol and Paul Golding of Britain First's Christian Patrol—in the same area he lives and works, to find out just how effective their operations are, and how genuine their belief is in the battle for East London's streets.