Tommy Robinson’s Unfortunate Predicament

There will be those who think that such harassment of Robinson is correct — that in order to keep the peace it is necessary to keep an eye on anybody who may have any effect to the contrary. But if that is true, it is curious that such measures were not routinely used on Anjem Choudary in all his years living freely in the community. It would be interesting to know if there are any records of Choudary and his family being harassed by police or removed from establishments while the hate-preacher was on whatever down-time he used to have. Or whether the British police ever routinely raid and search the houses of radical Islamists in the hope of finding errors in their VAT returns and the like.

But of course the very comparison is unfair and in many ways lazy, because Tommy Robinson has not been — as Choudary was — at the heart of a nexus of terrorists and terrorist-supporters going back years. He has not been on friendly terms with numerous people who have beheaded civilians and carried out suicide bombings. There are not any occasions, of which the author is aware, on which Robinson has called for violence or the breaking of the law in the name of his political views. But in the eyes of the law, much of the media and a certain number of people in the country Robinson is in an exceptionally unfortunate position. He is not a radical Islamist and nor is he from any discernible minority. He is a white working-class man who, it appears, can thus not only be harassed by certain authorities with impunity, but can find few if any defenders of his rights among the vast panoply of people in our societies who are only too keen to defend the rights of Islamists. – Douglas Murray

Complete article here.

image_pdfimage_print

3 Responses

  1. It's a sign of progress that people like Douglas Murray are willing to notice and write about Tommy Robinson. I remember so well the pain of one Christmas a few years back when Tommy was kept in solitary long past the legally allotted time and his plight was simply ignored by the literati in Britain. 

    It wasn't hard to visualize Tommy buried alive in gaol – at least metaphorically – and worried about his children, while the toffs above ground attended Christmas – uh, make that Winter Holiday – parties without a thought to this courageous young father.

    Tommy has courage and spunk. He's impulsive, energetic, and determined to save what is left of his country. Were he not a "chav" (that's the term he uses for his status), he might make some headway. But in Britain the strict divisions of class and the waste of a welfare state doom many a bright and clever fellow to meaninglessness.

    Perhpas his trip to Israel re-awoke a nascent spirituality one can glimpse sometimes…he will need it as the persecution of the UK soviet continues.

  2. I submit comments on Samizdata, a Brit based Libertarian website and half the time I am talking to low information voters. These are suppoed to be the best and brightest but they are Eloi who have as much understandig of Islam as a Stonehenge rock. The Brits have been pro-Arab forever and anti-Israel forever. The exceptions to this make news as in man bites dog. My daughter lives and works in London. I say Nigel Farage, and she says "evreryone I know hates him." She only knows 'highly educated' people and wealthy people. It is the Tommy Robinson's she does not know. She did buy Tommy's 'Enemy of The State  for me last year but she won't read it.

  3. I clicked on the link and read the article. I have been keeping an eye out for Robinson since he first appeared on the scene, and I must say, I admire and like him, and I think he is, so to speak, growing into his job – tempered by fire.

    Sometimes when I dare to dream I envisage, in, say, five years time, or seven, a very elderly Queen (remember, her mother lived to be 101), knighting Tommy Robinson for services to the Crown..  He deserved a Knighthood simply for charging into a bunch of jihad-inciters to tear down the Black Flag of jihad.

    I read the Comments at Gatestone.  One in particular stood out.  The Commenter asked whether there was any MP in Parliament (UK) who dared to ask Questions about the way in which Tommy Robinson has been treated.

    An excellent question: and one that could be turned into action, by British readers of NER.  EAch and every one of whom could write to their own MP, with a summary of what has been done to Mr Robinson, and in particular, enclosing copies of Mr Murray's article, with its 'compare and contrast' of the treatment of Mr Choudhury and Mr Robinson (but reading Robinson's own book would also be helpful, before writing), and urge said MPs to speak up about this unconscionable harassment of a British citizen.  There are certain MPs – and do not forget, either, the House of Peers – there is Baroness Caroline Cox, there is Malcolm Lord Pearson, Earl of Rannoch – who might, I think, be induced to step up to the plate.  Try it, anyway. I don't know whether it's been tried already. If it has, with no apparent result, remember our Lord's story of the persistent widow and the lazy Judge… and try again, and again, and again.  Questions, asked in Parliament, woudl be something to push for, as a start.  Why not send a copy of his book to every MP? – together with Barnabas Fund's "Islam in Britain" and Sam Solomon's "Al Hijra: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration".  Let them have no possible excuse.  (Copies of 'Easy Meat' could form part of a similar mailout… or a presentation; find persons in every electorate willing to personally present their MP with a copy of that devastating report, and urge them to Do Something).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution.
                              — Bruce Bawer

The perfect gift for the history lover in your life. Order on Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon or Amazon UK or wherever books are sold


Order at Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold. 

Order at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Send this to a friend