EDL Founder Tommy Robinson Addresses Pegida Anti-Islam Rally in Holland

THE INDEPENDENT When Robinson announced he was quitting the English Defence League he declared the group was 'part of the problem'

When Tommy Robinson announced two years ago that he was quitting the English Defence League (EDL) and embracing multi-culturalism it was hailed as one of the more improbable volte faces in recent times.

Appearing alongside two former Islamist activists, the EDL founder declared his group to be “part of the problem” and said he would be working with the counter-extremist Quilliam Foundation to combat Islamism.

But this weekend Robinson seemed to have returned to his roots after he travelled to the Netherlands to address a rally of the anti-Islam movement Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (Pegida) and declared that he was “proud” to have set up the EDL. The far-right figurehead appeared alongside the leaders of Pegida in the Dutch city of Utrecht to call for a day of protest across Europe. He described his former EDL colleagues as “brave and fearless”. Read on and comment » | Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter |Tuesday, October 13, 2015

EDL Say 'No to Islam' & Burn ISIS Flag in Aylesbury

Minor clashes broke out between members of the far-right English Defence League (EDL), the police and a group of counter-protesters in the small Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury, Saturday.

North Wales Fire Service Employee Quits amid Investigation into Alleged Posts on Far-right Website

DAILY POST: The clerical worker was being probed over allegations they uploaded material onto a Norway-based site

A North Wales fire service employee has quit amid an investigation into alleged anti-Islamic posts made on a far-right website during work time.

The clerical worker, who was based in Colwyn Bay, was being probed over allegations they uploaded material onto a Norway-based website which is described by its critics as “one of the main forums for Islamaphobic debate”.

Articles understood to have been written by the fire service worker included one which suggested that “jihadists” were being recruited by councils in Northern Europe, and the website was allegedly used by them to publicise demonstrations by the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

A raft of other articles apparently written by the worker highlight mainstream UK media stories about offences committed by Muslims.

Other articles focused on crimes committed by immigrants. » | Jez Hemming | Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Provocative Islamic Sign That Says 'Do Not Walk Your Dog Here! Muslims Don't Like Dogs' Investigated By Police

THE INDEPENDENT: Park sign may have been put there by Islamists or EDL, says local MP

A sign declaring a London park an “Islamic area” and ordering dog walkers to stay away because “Muslims do not like dogs” is being investigated by police.

The warning, branded “alarming and divisive” by the local council, appeared in Bartlett Park in east London’s Poplar.

It read: "Do not walk your dog here! Muslims do not like dogs. This is an Islamic area now."

Local Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick alerted police to the sign after a dog walker complained.

"The question is whether it was put up by the EDL to be provocative or by religious zealots to be racist," he told the Evening Standard. » | Tom Payne | Friday, May 30, 2014

Quitting the English Defence League: When Tommy Met Mo

Documentary following Tommy Robinson and Mo Ansar as each shows the other his view of British Islam, and uncovering the full story of how Robinson decided to leave the EDL.
Watch the BBC documentary here

Mohammed Ansar: My 18 Months with Former EDL Leader Tommy Robinson

Mohammed Ansar and Tommy Robinson

THE GUARDIAN: I'm not sure how much I changed the former far-right leader's views on Islam, but I don't regret making a film with him

Tommy was much shorter than I anticipated. Surrounded by an entourage, huddled in one corner of the green room, he kept shuffling uncomfortably and throwing his shoulders back. He looked like someone who was getting ready for a fight. We didn't make eye contact, but it wasn't long before we were called down to the makeshift studio in the grammar school in Bury. It was April 2012, and it was my first face-to-face meeting with Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), the leader of the English Defence League (EDL). We were appearing on a BBC1 programme called The Big Questions. Little did I know this would be the start of an 18-month journey together that would end with Tommy leaving the EDL.

It's odd the little things I remember about that encounter. It felt almost like an out-of-body experience to sit opposite the leader of the English far right in a television debate. As discussions got under way – I called for the EDL to be proscribed and talked about links between EDL ideology and the Norwegian killer Anders Breivik - I found myself distracted by Tommy's hair. It was slicked to one side as if prepared for a school photo.

Then, as the debate continued, the protests outside the studio seemed to fade and something slightly odd happened. We shared a moment of levity, perhaps humanity. As the presenter, Nicky Campbell, spoke into the camera, Tommy and I looked at each other and cracked up slightly. I'm not sure why, but Twitter noticed. Robinson was no friend of mine, and albeit condemned by people around the world as an enemy to Islam, but suddenly we were kids at the back of the class. » | Mohammed Ansar | Saturday, October 19, 2013

Who Is the Real Tommy Robinson?

Tommy Robinson, né Stephen Yaxley-Lennon

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The former leader of the English Defence League, the organisation he founded in 2009, is a man of multiple identities, finds Matt Rowland Hill

“Going to prison was the best thing that ever happened to me,” declares Tommy Robinson. I am sitting in a hotel bar in Luton town centre, listening to him explain why he has quit the English Defence League. Before his imprisonment he had been receiving death threats from Islamists, and neo-Nazis were threatening to take over the EDL. As a result, he says, he was “drinking alcohol, going out three times a week, neglecting my wife. I thought I was dealing with the pressures of the English Defence League, but I was pretty much just bingeing my way through it.”

Short and stocky, like a welterweight grown pudgy between bouts, Robinson speaks with an understated manner that belies the intensity of his words. In January he was jailed for travelling to meet American EDL supporters in New York using somebody else’s passport, and spent eighteen weeks in solitary confinement after running into trouble with Muslim gangs on the inside. Those long hours in his cell were, he says, his first opportunity since 2009 to take stock. “And that’s when I started to question, where’s the EDL going? Because, you know, we march up and down this country, but what is it we want to get out of it? And how do we succeed?”

Multiple identities are a theme of Robinson’s career to date. His real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon; he adopted the alias “Tommy Robinson” in the early days of the EDL as protection, he says, against reprisals from Muslims. To many, he is little more than a cut-price demagogue in designer clobber who has spent four-and-a-half years inciting hatred against Muslims with his menacing and often violent rallies. To others, he is a misunderstood liberal unafraid of trampling cultural sensitivities while speaking up for “British values”. He now says he wants to become an advocate for moderation and dialogue by working with Quilliam, an anti-extremism think[-] tank. If he does so, it will be his most audacious transformation yet. » | Matt Rowland Hill | Friday, October 18, 2013

Tommy Robinson Reveals Death Threats after Quitting EDL

Tommy Robinson

THE GUARDIAN: Former English Defence League leader appears in court to deny two public order offences, and says he is a wanted man

The former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson has said he has become "the most wanted man on either side" since leaving the far-right group.

The 30-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he had received a number of death threats since resigning last week.

Appearing in court charged with two public order offences, he said his decision to quit had "upset a lot of people".

"The people who the death threats are coming from are the people who I was opposing anyway – they were the elements that were always on the outside of the English Defence League, they were around it always wanting to hijack it," he said.

Yaxley-Lennon, from Luton, said he had received threats from Muslim extremists and from Nazis. "I am the most wanted man on either side," he said. » | Press Association | Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Tommy Robinson Link with Quilliam Foundation Raises Questions

Maajid Nawaz and Tommy Robinson

THE GUARDIAN: Counter-extremism thinktank's decision to ally itself with former EDL leader is viewed by many as a high-stakes gamble

For a few briefly awkward seconds last Tuesday, the press conference to mark Tommy Robinson's exit from the English Defence League was delayed, as his new-found Muslim allies in a counter-extremism thinktank struggled to open the door to the room of waiting television cameras and journalists.

It was an uncharacteristic glitch for Maajid Nawaz, co-founder of the Quilliam Foundation and a man frequently described as smooth and slick by those who have followed his public profile over the years since his transition from teenage gang member through to jailed Islamist extremist and, most recently, would-be Liberal Democrat MP.

However, senior figures working in the growing field of the study of counter-extremism and the rehabilitation of former extremists have been viewing its link-up with Robinson as a high-stakes gamble that has raised serious questions about the motivations of an organisation that has played a particularly controversial role.

If the latest accounts - for the financial year up to March 2012 - filed by the Quilliam Foundation are anything to go by, the high-profile injection of publicity also comes at a time when it may be facing challenging financial circumstances.

Two years after the Home Office began to wind down its funding for the organisation, those accounts show that Quilliam was facing mounting debts, while having little in the way of relative assets. Income from training, consultancy and publications were haemorrhaging, while its income from grants and donations fell from just over £900,000 in 2011 to £532,099 in 2012. » | Ben Quinn | Saturday, October 12, 2013

Former EDL Leader Tommy Robinson Vows to Help Police Track Down 'Racists' within the Organisation and Says He's Sorry for Scaring British Muslims

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a.k.a. Tommy Robinson

MAIL ONLINE: Tommy Robinson, 30, who quit EDL this week after founding it four years ago, says he will work with police to investigate racism in the organization / Also apologised for creating an 'us versus them' culture in Britain and causing fear among British Muslims / He will now work with Maajid Nawaz, who heads the deradicalisation thinktank, The Quilliam Foundation

Tommy Robinson, who dramatically quit the English Defence League this week, has vowed to help police tackle racism within the organsation and has apologised for causing fear among British Muslims.

Mr Robinson, 30, said he would work with police to help them investigate racism in the organisation - known for its thuggish street protests and extremist followers.

Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also said he was sorry for creating a 'us and them' culture and for causing fear among British Muslims.

Mr Robinson, who co-founded the group four years ago with Kevin Carroll who also left the group this week, said: 'I apologise for [creating] that fear.'

When asked about his claim that 'every single Muslim' was to blame for 'getting away' with the July 7 bombings, he also said 'I'm sorry'.

Mr Robinson said that his past inflammatory statements had often been fuelled by alcohol and the adrenaline rush of 'leading the biggest street protest movement in Europe.'

Giving reason for his decision to leave the group, Mr Robinson said he had been sobered by his 18-week stint in prison and by the experience of being shunned by parents when picking up his children at school.

He will now work with Maajid Nawaz, a former prominent member of the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and who heads the deradicalisation thinktank, the Quilliam Foundation. » | Lizzie Edmonds | Saturday, October 12, 2013

THE GUARDIAN: Ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson says sorry for causing fear to Muslims: In Guardian interview, Robinson says he will talk to police to help them investigate dangerous racists in far-right group » | Shiv Malik | Friday, October 11, 2013

Tommy Robinson: 'I Renounce Racism and Violence'

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson tells Channel 4 News he wants to work with moderate Muslims and says he despises Nazis and Islamists.

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EDL Leader Tommy Robinson Quits

English Defence League founders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll are leaving the group, saying it has become too extreme. But anti-racism campaigners say concerns remain over their extremist views.

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Tommy Robinson to Quit the EDL

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Tommy Robinson Quits EDL Saying It Has Become 'Too Extreme'

THE GUARDIAN: English Defence League leader and its co-founder leave far-right group in move announced by counter-extremism thinktank

The leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, has announced that he is leaving the organisation because it has become too extreme.

Robinson, who leads anti-Islam protests that have often turned violent and have been marked by racist chanting, said Islamist ideology should be challenged "not with violence but with better, democratic ideas".

Robinson, who set up the EDL in 2009 ostensibly to combat extreme Islamism in the UK, is facing criminal charges in relation to his activities with the group.

The 30-year-old from Luton, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said: "I have been considering this move for a long time because I recognise that, though street demonstrations have brought us to this point, they are no longer productive. I acknowledge the dangers of far-right extremism and the ongoing need to counter Islamist ideology not with violence but with better, democratic ideas." » | Haroon Siddique | Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Selfridges Faces Backlash After Giving EDL Leader Tommy Robinson Free Steak Lunch

THE INDEPENDENT: Calls to boycott the store have been made again after a sales assistant refused to serve Robinson's friend

Department store Selfridges has courted controversy again after giving leader of the English defence [sic] League Tommy Robinson a free steak to apologise after a member of staff refused to serve them.

The menswear employee was temporarily suspended for violating company policy after refusing to serve Robinson's friend. Robinson, a convicted criminal who leads anti-Islam protests across the country, was in the Oxford Street store with his friend who was looking to purchase a pair of jeans.

Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, filmed himself challenging the shop assistant who reportedly refused to help Robinson's friend, saying "f**k off, I am not serving you" after asking if he was with the EDL leader.

Robinson said he assumed the shop assistant was a Muslim as he "had Mo on his name tag".

A spokesman said anyone was welcome to shop in the store “ regardless of political opinion”.

To apologise, Selfridges gave Robinson and his friend a three course meal at the store's in-house Hix Restaurant, Champagne and Caviar Bar, which included a prawn cocktail starter, steak and chips, finished off by chocolate cake and ice cream.

The complimentary meal, which Robinson described as "decent" on Twitter, was worth £83. » | Heather Saul | Thursday, September 19, 2013

Arrests as EDL March in East London

BBC: Ten people have been arrested as up to 500 supporters of the far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) held a march in east London.

About 3,000 officers maintained a visible presence as the group walked from Queen Elizabeth Street, over Tower Bridge, going up to Aldgate.

On Friday the group lost a court battle after police cut short its plans to march through the Tower Hamlets area.

Hundreds others gathered at a park in Aldgate to protest against the march.

Of the 10 held, eight are from the EDL while two others are from a counter demonstration, police said. » | Saturday, September 07, 2013

Violent Clashes at Far-right Rally in Birmingham

THE SUN: A DEMO by the English Defence League ended in bloodshed yesterday when rocks, bottles and cans were hurled at protesters during a march.

Two men and a police officer suffered head injuries during clashes as 1,000 cops, many in riot gear, battled to keep the far-right group from Unite Against Fascism supporters who were staging a counter-rally in Birmingham. » | Sunday, July 21, 2013

Pat Condell: Our Crippling Fear of the Truth

EDL Leader Robinson Arrested Amid Tribute Bid

Police detain English Defence League leaders who were banned from marching to where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

SKY NEWS: Two English Defence League leaders have been arrested in London as they attempted to march to Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in May.

Tommy Robinson shouted, "You are enforcing Sharia law", at officers who held him on suspicion of obstructing police as he tried to enter the London borough of Tower Hamlets.

The EDL had previously announced plans to walk through part of the capital before gathering outside Woolwich Barracks, near where Drummer Rigby was hacked to death in broad daylight.

But the Metropolitan Police put conditions on the march which demanded that it ended at Old Palace Yard, opposite the House of Lords.

As well as planning to lay flowers in memory of Drummer Rigby, Mr Robinson and EDL co-leader Kevin Carroll, who was also arrested, were walking to raise money for a young girl fighting cancer.

Sky Correspondent Tom Parmenter said: "They'd walked six miles when they were arrested outside Aldgate East underground station.

"Police had been tracking the walk across London and had regularly spoken to them about their route.

"The EDL leaders had been warned not to go past a large mosque in east London or enter the borough of Tower Hamlets.

"As they approached the boundary of the borough they were warned again by officers who told them they may be arrested."

Mr Robinson and Mr Carroll repeatedly asked if they would actually be arrested before another man approached the pair and assaulted Mr Carroll.

Parmenter said: "As police officers tried to deal with the situation the EDL leaders continued to walk forward and then a senior policewoman placed the pair under arrest." (+ video) » | SkyNews | Saturday, June 29, 2013

US Bloggers Banned from Entering UK

BBC: Two prominent US bloggers have been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said.

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer co-founded anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America.

They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

A government spokesman said individuals whose presence "is not conducive to the public good" could be excluded by the home secretary.

He added: "We condemn all those whose behaviours and views run counter to our shared values and will not stand for extremism in any form."

'Right decision'

Ms Geller, of the Atlas Shrugs blog, and Mr Spencer, of Jihad Watch, are also co-founders of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, best known for a pro-Israel "Defeat Jihad" poster campaign on the New York subway.

On both of their blogs the pair called their bans from entering the UK "a striking blow against freedom" and said the "the nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead".

They were due to attend a march planned by the far-right EDL to mark Armed Forces Day on 29 June, ending in Woolwich, south east London, where soldier Drummer Rigby was murdered last month.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, who had called for the bloggers to be banned from the UK, said: "I welcome the home secretary's ban on Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer from entering the country. This is the right decision. The UK should never become a stage for inflammatory speakers who promote hate."

EDL leader Tommy Robinson, meanwhile, criticised the decision and said Ms Geller and Mr Spencer were coming to the UK to lay flowers at the place where Drummer Rigby died.

"It's embarrassing for this so-called land of democracy and freedom of speech," he said.

"How many hate preachers are living in this country? It just shows what sort of a two-tier system we have here." » | Wednesday, June 26, 2013

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