Tommy, Kev – What the EDL is Going On?

By Max Musson:

It all began in March 2009 when two groups composed of about a dozen members each of the Muslim fundamentalist group ‘Al-Muhajiroun’ protested noisily in Luton at the homecoming parade of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

As the troops marched through the town centre, police hurriedly intervened to prevent violence breaking out between angry White residents and Muslim demonstrators holding placards denouncing the soldiers as ‘war criminals’ and ‘murderers’.

A direct consequence of this incident was the formation of a group calling itself ‘United People of Luton’, which contained some previously anti-jihadist elements, together with other football hooligan groups such as ‘Men in Gear’ and ‘UK Casuals United’, but which also primarily composed of many ordinary, outraged and angry Lutonians, furious that Muslim groups were allowed to spoil an otherwise proud and joyous occasion.

On 25^th May that year, ‘United People of Luton’ staged a demonstration to express their anger at the actions of the Muslim groups and around 500 people took part in what was a rather disorderly parade though the town.

Tommy Robinson and Kev Carroll were among the organisers of that event and in the months that followed, they progressively asserted their authority over the organisation that evolved into the English Defence League (EDL), a nationwide organisation with divisions in many of the major towns and cities across England.

Tommy Robinson had previously been a member of the British National Party and despite the efforts of Robinson and Carroll to establish the non-racist credentials of the EDL, their speeches comprised of many of the same arguments that BNP leader Nick Griffin was using to denigrate Islam and so-called anti-racist groups such as ‘Hope Not Hate’ and ‘Searchlight’ and Jewish groups in particular, continued to describe the EDL as ‘far-right’ and to regard it with suspicion if not outright hostility.

During its first couple of years the EDL was regarded by the authorities as a serious threat to race relations in the UK and both Robinson and Carroll were subjected to considerable police harassment with frequent armed police raids on their homes and the homes of family members and the kind of disruptive tactics normally reserved for serious organised criminals were used to make like as difficult as possible for them.

Understandably therefore, the pair were desperate to earn the approval of the establishment and it is easy to see why they eagerly accepted approaches from Zionist groups who during 2010 began to recognise the potential benefits of having a ‘Kosher’ street army especially one run by two people whose glaring political naivety was probably only exceeded by their deficiency in critical thinking.

During 2010 the EDL were persuaded to hold a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy to declare their solidarity with Israel in that country’s perceived struggle against Islam.

Traditional Jewish groups were rather disconcerted by this, but Roberta Moore, the Brazilian born head of the EDL’s newly formed Jewish Division rationalised her position, in the Jewish Chronicle, stating, “We are going to the embassy to show support for Israel, to fight jihad in our streets”, and while stating of the Jewish community in isolation, “We do not have enough Jews standing up to protest”, she assured them that through her association with the EDL, the Jewish community, “will enjoy the benefits of our action.”

Thus we had the ludicrous development of the EDL demonstrating in our towns and cities displaying the Star of David together with the Cross of St. George and denouncing the growing influence of one organized minority group, Islam, that is adversely impacting upon the people this country, while at the same time shouting of their solidarity with and support for another minority group, organized Jewry, that most knowledgeable people would argue, have adversely impacted upon Britain to a far greater degree.

None-the-less, the EDL have throughout their history so far remained opposed to the spread of Islam, although as time has passed, what was once a clearly defined position has through the vacillations of their leadership become a rather fudged opposition to ‘Islamism’ rather than to Islam in general, albeit that Tommy Robinson has struggled to define the distinction between the two.

At an EDL demonstration which took place in Peterborough on 11^th December 2010, Tommy Robinson stated, “As I said, Islam rules with fear, Islam is fucked because the British public, the British public, the British people of this country are no longer fearful.

“We are leading the fight in the world, the whole world is looking to us, every organisation in Europe, in America are looking to the British public to deal with militant fucking Islam.”

He also said “Islam is a disease, it is a disease! Winston Churchill once said, ‘Islam in a man is the same as rabies in a dog’”.

Furthermore at a later demonstration in Aldgate on 3^rd September 2011, Robinson stated, “As I’ve said, we are here today to tell you quite loud, quite clear, every single Muslim watching this video on Youtube, on 7/7 you got away with killing and maiming British citizens, you got away with it.

“Next time you think about it, you’d better understand that we have built a network from one end of this country to the other end.

“We will not tolerate it and the Islamic community will feel the full force of the English Defence League if we see any our citizens killed maimed or hurt on British soil ever again.”

The above quotations when taken into account with claims by Robinson that some of his best friends are Muslims, presents a rather confused picture of a man who on one level wants to confront what he instinctively knows is a violent and oppressive religious ideology, but who on an emotional level wants to be thought of as a nice guy and liked by everyone.

This aspect of Robinson’s character manifests itself again and again, swinging one way during EDL demonstrations in which he expresses his unwavering opposition to the ‘disease of Islam’, and swinging back again when he is later questioned in front of TV cameras, explaining that he is not opposed to Islam per se, but only to ‘militant Islam’ or to ‘Islamism’ in circumstances in which this distinction makes no sense.

One such occasion came on, appropriately, April Fool’s Day 2012, when Tommy appeared on the BBC’s ‘The Big Questions’ in a debate which included the Muslim writer Mohammed Ansar.

Following Tommy’s attempts to deflect accusations of Islamophobia, none of which the audience took seriously, Mohammed Ansar recognising that he was dealing with a man who is sincere in his beliefs but not very bright, made Robinson the patronising offer, “That if you and your family want to come and meet me and my family for dinner, you’re more than welcome”.

Tommy appeared to accept the offer, but the significance of this did not register until the developments of the last few days.

Indeed Mohammed Ansar does not feature publicly again with regard to the EDL until 25^th May 2013, just three days after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

The murder had struck a chord in the minds of the public and the EDL were massing in Newcastle for what was to be by far the largest of their more recent demonstrations. Nearby, anti-fascists and Muslim counter demonstrators were also massing and while the two sides were being kept apart by the police, in an almost deserted back street Tommy Robinson and Mohammed Ansar met alone and unseen by their followers.

They were however spotted by some paparazzi who witnessed the two talking and eventually hugging each other and eventually turning to pose for the cameras and the story featured in the Sunday Mirror the following day.

Was this the first public indication that Tommy Robinson had taken up Mohammed Ansar’s offer of dinner that had been made thirteen months earlier?

As we all know, on the 8^th of this month, Tommy Robinson and Kev Carroll announced under the auspices of the Quilliam Foundation that they and a number of their lieutenants were quiting the EDL supposedly to pursue their aims by different means.

The Quilliam Foundation was established in 2007 by Ed Husain, Maajid Nawaz and Rashad Zaman Ali, three former members of the extremist Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the group which was formed ostensibly to combat Islamic extremism has over the intervening years received government funding amounting to several millions of pounds.

Robinson and Carroll claim that street protests are no longer effective and that they no longer feel able to contain extremist elements within the organisation that they formed and hitherto ran, furthermore, it was revealed that Robinson and his co-leader will be undertaking lessons in Islam from staff at Quilliam and these developments present a truly bizarre state of affairs.

So how did this bizarre state of affairs come about?

On his Twitter page Mohammed Ansar tweeted the following messages on 8^th October:

Eighteen months ago was about the time that Ansar and Robinson both appeared on ‘The Big Questions’ together and Mohammed Ansar invited Robinson and his family to meet him and his family over dinner.

On Mohammed Ansar’s blog, https://moansar.blogspot.co.uk/, in the article dated 30^th May 2013, entitled ‘If The Government Is Looking For Extremists, Just Look Out Of The Window’, Ansar reveals that, “My BBC1 debate with Tommy Robinson last year lead to face-to-face private discussions over a meal. No stone was left unturned in those three hours and despite being left dumbfounded and contemplating whether I had been ‘reading a different Quran’ to others, since coming out of prison he has redoubled his efforts.”

He goes on, “Our paths crossed again over the May Bank Holiday weekend in a heated clash of words on the backstreets of Newcastle ahead of the EDL demonstration last Saturday.”

This subsequent meeting was however the one referred to earlier, which led to them embracing and posing for press photos and my belief is that Mohammed Ansar, a much more intelligent man than Robinson, may have prevailed over him in the discussions over dinner and persuaded Robinson to consider entering into lengthier and more significant discussions with Quilliam.

The so-called ‘chance encounter’ in a Newcastle back street on 25^th May was almost certainly planned, but the press presence may not have been. However I suspect that this was an occasion upon which Ansar either informed Robinson that a meeting with Quilliam had been arranged, or than one could be brokered, and at which Robinson finally succumbed in agreeing to such a meeting.

The piecing together of the above sequence of events however, still does not explain what leverage the Quilliam Foundation were able to exercise in causing both Tommy Robinson and Kev Carroll to perform such a sudden volte-face.

One only has to view video footage of their speeches at Tower Hamlets on 7^th September this year to see that just one month and one day prior to their resignations, Robinson and Carroll were speaking with apparently as much energy and commitment as ever previously. Therefore, it would appear that either they were faking this late energy and commitment to the cause, or perhaps alternatively, something significant has happened to them to change their minds during the last month.

We might all now wonder just what went on in those discussions with Quilliam over the last three or four months and what leverage may have been applied to induce not just Robinson and Carroll, but a dozen of their lieutenants also, to abandon a project that had occupied their whole lives for the last four years?

We might also now wonder what will become of the EDL. Will there be individuals with enough charisma and enough personal authority to hold it together and turn it to good use?

The EDL had a great deal of potential, but was always hampered by the determination of Robinson and Carroll to shun collaboration with any genuine nationalist organizations. This rejection of true nationalism with its racial basis meant that for most EDL followers the ‘enemy’ was always ill-defined and the objectives of the movement always rather fuzzy and indeterminate.

My belief is that in the absence  of any specific objectives there were no parameters by which the progress of the EDL could be measured. Furthermore, in the absence of any evidence of achievement or progress that could be announced to their followers in order to maintain morale, I believe Tommy Robinson felt the need to make increasingly bombastic threats and assertions and this led him to over-reach himself in the speech at Aldgate in September 2011. In that speech he committed himself and the EDL to employ their “full force” against the ‘Muslim community’ if there were any further killings, or maimings of British  people on British soil by Muslim extremists, and the murder of Lee Rigby most definitely called his bluff.

I believe it is no coincidence that just three days after the murder of Lee Rigby, Tommy Robinson had his fateful ‘chance’ meeting with Mohammed Ansar in the back streets of Newcastle. A meeting which I suspect set him irreversibly upon the path that he has now chosen.

For what was Tommy going to do now that his bluff had been called?

He could not lead the EDL in a campaign of retribution with any hope of retaining his liberty. The EDL are a street gang, at best a poorly organized, ill-equiped and disorderly ‘street army’, but they are not a proper army, and while they might be able to wreak havoc in retribution against a number of unprotected civilian Muslim targets, they would certainly not prevail against the security services and the British Army, and most of them would end their days behind bars if they had attempted to act out Tommy’s fantasy.

Furthermore, Tommy could not credibly continue to lead the EDL after his threats had been shown to be completely hollow. How could he threaten the Muslim community again with any credibility when he shrank back from following through after such a grotesque murder as that of Lee Rigby?

I believe that Robinson and Carroll realised in the aftermath of Lee Rigby’s murder that they had marched themselves and the EDL up a blind alley. The EDL was not the kind of vehicle that could credibly carry out their threats and they were not leaders of the calibre required to credibly lead the EDL, even if it was.

Therefore, now that their credibility as street revolutionaries lies in tatters, there is apparently nothing left for them, but to start a new political party!

How original !!!!

By Max Musson © 2013

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