Tommy Robinson claims he’s a defender of free speech, what he really wants is to push an agenda of racist hate. On top of this the ‘Democratic Football Lads Alliance’ is using his incarceration to whip up an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.
In the wake of Robinsons arrest demonstrations have been called to kick ‘Muslims off our streets’. These Islamophobic calls for violence have echoed around social media but have become real and dangerous threats to innocent people across the UK.
Last Friday (1 June) hundreds marched through Leeds chanting “fight, fight, fight” and “Muslim paedos”. On 3 June two racists attacked a woman and her two young children in Bolton in broad daylight. In the early hours of this morning (5 June) Jamia Masjid Abu Huraira Mosque & Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Gurdwara were deliberately set on fire.
There is a direct correlation between all of these attacks. Racists on the streets open up a space for others to feel more confident about acting on their hatred. We can’t let it go further.
To justify their actions the far right are using a sweeping generalisation about Muslims which ties Islam to child abuse. This is not a new tactic. During the Rotherham child abuse trials, (which exposed the neglect and dismissal by the police and council to take the cases seriously), the right wing press and politicians created a narrative which explicitly blamed Muslims as the problem. They purposefully ignored the problem of systematic abuse in order to create a racist narrative to shift the blame.
The truth is Tommy Robinson doesn’t care about the victims of abuse. He was arrested in contempt of court because he purposefully tried to expose an ongoing trial which held very clear reporting restrictions. If he was successful the trial would’ve collapsed and the people accused would have walked free. Tommy Robinson tried to take justice away from the victims, he wants to create division and polarize British society and this is where his program of hate fits. Read more about his past here.
The far right have called a London mobilisation to ‘Free Tommy’ this Saturday 9 June. We must turn out in large numbers to oppose them and stop them from marching through London. Join the counter protest at 2pm here.