Tommy Robinson leaves the EDL but finds Pamela Geller harder to quit
TOMMY Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) and his deputy and cousin Kevin Carroll’s departure from the English Defence League has been making news. Robinson is not the first EDL member to make the leap to the Quilliam Foundation.
Hugh Muir wrote on that previous conversion in the Guardian:
…while the [English Defence League] says it eschews violence, there are claims that some of its people may have been taking a less than constructive approach to two former members who were poised to lift the lid on the group in association with the counter-extremism thinktank, Quilliam. Harry Burns and Leighton Evans were billed as “former senior members of the EDL who have renounced the group and are willing to speak out against it publicly … to answer questions about the organisation and their time inside it”. But they didn’t. Both pulled out, apparently citing threats. Not from us, insists the man from the EDL. In good faith we accept that. A simple solution. If in doubt, blame the Muslims.
Someone purporting to be Evans then, reportedly, wrote on a now defunct Facebook page “Exposing Racism“:
i refused to go along with what the quilliam wanted me to do which was renounce the edl. i wont do that and it was never on the agenda in my email exchanges with ghaffar hussain. he said i’d be asked why i joined, what i did, why i left and what i think know. he then released that load of old bollocks which i was never party to.
Yesterday, Robinson held a press conference in London’s Montague Hotel with Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz and Usama Hasan. Robinson has appeared on Channel 4 News and Newsnight, stating that “extremists” and “Nazis” wanted to take control of the EDL while he was in prison earlier this year. He said marches in the street are “counter-productive” because Muslims and non-Muslims need to work together against Islamists.
Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate was watching that press conference:
They [Lennon and Carroll] have attacked their former funder Alan Ayling (aka Lake) as being “tight” while US based Muslim-hater Pam Geller is credited with keeping Lennon’s family afloat while he was in prison.
The good news for Robert Spencer and Pam Geller is that the two former leaders have not turned their back on them, yet. The Quilliam Foundation, who brokered this “defection”, were rightly less charitable towards the pair.
Geller and Spencer have praised Robinson’s transfer:
He has decided, and my AFDI colleague Robert Spencer and I strongly endorse his decision, that his time is better spent working for the defense of England and human rights against Sharia and Islamization in different and more effective ways.
…Now, over two years later, it is clear to all of us that the best way to proceed is to leave the EDL behind and move forward in new directions.
How can Robinson and Carroll work with Quilliam and Geller and Spencer? Richard Bartholomew noted:
Their [Geller and Spencer] allies include Babu Suseelan, a Hindu militant who claims that Muslims “breed like rats” but that Islam can be “wiped out”.
Much more to come…
Posted: 9th, October 2013 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
