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Police arrested the leader of the English Defence League during a march in London on Saturday and more than 150 people who were protesting against it.
The several thousand anti-fascists who gathered in Aldgate East vastly outnumbered the 600 EDL supporters who marched across Tower Bridge and into the City, but the two groups were kept apart by a massive police operation.
There had been fears that the march and the counter protest, led by groups including Unite Against Fascism, would spark disorder and police applied to the high court to limit the march to a third of a mile short of its intended destination in the hope of preventing "serious" disorder. The EDL had planned to go through Tower Hamlets, the centre of one of Britain's biggest Muslim communities, which it said was "subject to Sharia law". But judge Mr Justice King ruled on Friday that a police decision to impose restrictions was reasonable and proportionate.
On Saturday afternoon, a tweet on the EDL website confirmed that the leader Tommy Robinson was among those arrested. It said: "Tommy's been arrested for incitement."
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "A 30-year-old man was arrested for breaching section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 and inciting others to breach section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986."
Police later said there had been a further 150 arrests. "All these approximately 150 people were protesting against the EDL presence," said a spokesman.
There was a heavy uniformed police presence on the streets during the afternoon outside the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre (ELM) in Aldgate East. Muslim leaders and politicians in London's East End said they were "fed up" but "united" as they led a protest to counter the EDL march.
Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets, and John Biggs, a local Labour London assembly member, were among the campaigners who listened to the speeches in nearby Altab Ali park.
Rahman admitted that he was "very fed up" with having to deal with such demonstrations, saying: "We just want to get on with our normal lives."
He added: "We are celebrating peace and tranquillity. We are not espousing violence. The people who want to talk about violence and inflict violence and hate on others can just go back to their nests and their holes."
Biggs claimed it was "atrocious" that the EDL march had not been banned and urged people to "stand up against racism".
He said: "Tower Hamlets is a vibrant and diverse borough which I am proud to call home. Like many other areas of our country, there are problems such as unemployment and poverty, but the EDL blame 'others' for our country's problems in an attempt to divide us."
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