Pegida – Faith Matters https://www.faith-matters.org Working with Faith Communities Countering Extremism, Supporting Integration & Challenging Hatred. Founded by Fiyaz Mughal Thu, 13 Jan 2022 14:57:43 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://www.faith-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/favicon.png Pegida – Faith Matters https://www.faith-matters.org 32 32 95725945 Pegida Believes that a ‘Parking Jihad’ is Being Waged in Areas https://www.faith-matters.org/pegida-believes-that-a-parking-jihad-is-being-waged-in-areas-2/ Fri, 29 Apr 2016 02:00:43 +0000 https://tellmamauk.org/?p=7758 Not to be outdone in waxing lyrical about ‘Jihad’, the extremist far right group Pegida UK, (led by the sadly unreformed agent provocateur Stephen Yaxley Lennon – aka Tommy Robinson), have decided that they will oppose mosques. Clearly someone has failed to inform them that mosques already exist in our country. However, not to be

The post Pegida Believes that a ‘Parking Jihad’ is Being Waged in Areas appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

LinkedInWhatsApp

Not to be outdone in waxing lyrical about ‘Jihad’, the extremist far right group Pegida UK, (led by the sadly unreformed agent provocateur Stephen Yaxley Lennon – aka Tommy Robinson), have decided that they will oppose mosques. Clearly someone has failed to inform them that mosques already exist in our country.

However, not to be outdone in the race to target Muslim communities, far right groups like Pegida have joined up with ‘Mosqueblock’ and they have decided that they will provide guidance to members of the public to lodge what can only be assumed to be vexatious complaints against mosque planning applications.

So there we go. Pegida who claimed to fight ‘Islamic extremism’ are in fact, targeting a group of citizens by potentially making it  difficult for them to lodge successful applications for local mosques. We do not want you to pray in mosques is what Pegida is suggesting by these set of actions.

So next time you hear Pegida talking about tackling extremism, just remember this. They believe that one group of people in our country, British Muslim citizens, should be subjected to complaints if they want to develop a mosque to pray in. If anything, this shows what a malevolent group Pegida are.

Parking Jihad

LinkedInWhatsApp

The post Pegida Believes that a ‘Parking Jihad’ is Being Waged in Areas appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 2522 Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused https://www.faith-matters.org/muslim-female-on-advisory-board-to-government-on-tackling-islamophobia-incessantly-abused/ Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:11:07 +0000 https://tellmamauk.org/?p=7248 Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred. The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred.

The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to reach out to and ensure that all communities feel safe within our country.

On the 6th of January 2016, Mrs Ahmed simply tweeted out that she has been on a school run to pick up her 11-year-old daughter and stopped to wait at a junction with a car in front of her. This vehicle’s driver, it seems, was abusive towards Mrs Ahmed and subsequent tweets stated that she did not aggravate the driver and that she has previously suffered such intimidating incidents without any provocation.

Mrs Ahmed simply reported to us, (as a national third-party reporting project), the fact that she perceived this incident to be anti-Muslim in nature since she is visibly Muslim. She also stated that she did not do anything to provoke the individual concerned.  In fact, this is one of the reason’s why third-party reporting centres were set up after the Macpherson report of 1999. They were set up so that members of the public could report in hate incidents or hate crimes based on their perception of the incident. These reports would then be sent to the police who would either crime the report for action or place it as some form of intelligence so that if anything occurred in the future, there was a trace of the initial complaint.

Having received the tweets from Ms Ahmed, we ensured that we contacted her to find out more about what had happened and to re-assure her that we would be in touch with the police on the matter so that they could be in touch with her. For those who are not aware, this is one of the roles of a third-party national hate crime reporting project like Tell MAMA. Ensuring public confidence in the system to ensure justice for the victim is key. This means contacting victims to corroborate a version of events with any evidence available.

So what could possibly go wrong when a victim of perceived anti-Muslim prejudice reported into a national project, set up to support victims of anti-Muslim prejudice?

Well, along came Anne-Marie Waters, Chairwoman of ‘Sharia Watch’ and one of the self-appointed leaders of Pegida UK. Having imposed herself into the conversation, she suggested that those reporting hate incidents into third-party reporting projects, should not be ‘using up police time.’ This after she decided to include references to grooming and sexual abuse, making the bigoted link between innocent law-abiding Muslims and others who had been involved in grooming activities. The rage of Anne-Marie Waters though, did not last very long according to her tweets, yet they generated a barrage of hateful tweets to the victim thereafter.

Every day, tens of hate incident reports go into third-party hate crime organisations and agencies. Some of these reports lead to arrests and some provide strong intelligence to stop future crimes that could lead to more serious assaults. Such projects therefore provide confidence and support for victims.

Not according to Anne-Marie Waters, who decided that she knew better and in the process, spiralled the conversation into a blame game with the victim being targeted by someone who may know very little about the experiences of black and minority ethnic women and the racism, prejudice and bigotry that some have faced.

We have listed the threads of conversations below and these are just a snapshot of the abusive messages that Ms Ahmed received over a 48 hour period with a sustained and co-ordinated campaign to abuse and intimidate her.

Akeela Ahmed - man being abusive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Akeela Ahmed - man being abusive 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further whip up a storm, self styled ‘New Era’ Tommy Robinson joined in to agitate with the folowing tweet that further inflamed the situation. Given the abuse that Ms Ahmed was now receiving, this tweet exacerbated the volume and intensity of the abuse that she received and which was also directed at us.

The tweets below are just a snapshot of the hundreds of tweets that were directed at the victim.

 

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 1691 Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused https://www.faith-matters.org/muslim-female-on-advisory-board-to-government-on-tackling-islamophobia-incessantly-abused-2/ Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:11:07 +0000 https://i1.wp.com/tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Twitter-1.jpg?fit=300%2C158

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred. The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred.

The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to reach out to and ensure that all communities feel safe within our country.

On the 6th of January 2016, Mrs Ahmed simply tweeted out that she has been on a school run to pick up her 11-year-old daughter and stopped to wait at a junction with a car in front of her. This vehicle’s driver, it seems, was abusive towards Mrs Ahmed and subsequent tweets stated that she did not aggravate the driver and that she has previously suffered such intimidating incidents without any provocation.

Mrs Ahmed simply reported to us, (as a national third-party reporting project), the fact that she perceived this incident to be anti-Muslim in nature since she is visibly Muslim. She also stated that she did not do anything to provoke the individual concerned.  In fact, this is one of the reason’s why third-party reporting centres were set up after the Macpherson report of 1999. They were set up so that members of the public could report in hate incidents or hate crimes based on their perception of the incident. These reports would then be sent to the police who would either crime the report for action or place it as some form of intelligence so that if anything occurred in the future, there was a trace of the initial complaint.

Having received the tweets from Ms Ahmed, we ensured that we contacted her to find out more about what had happened and to re-assure her that we would be in touch with the police on the matter so that they could be in touch with her. For those who are not aware, this is one of the roles of a third-party national hate crime reporting project like Tell MAMA. Ensuring public confidence in the system to ensure justice for the victim is key. This means contacting victims to corroborate a version of events with any evidence available.

So what could possibly go wrong when a victim of perceived anti-Muslim prejudice reported into a national project, set up to support victims of anti-Muslim prejudice?

Well, along came Anne-Marie Waters, Chairwoman of ‘Sharia Watch’ and one of the self-appointed leaders of Pegida UK. Having imposed herself into the conversation, she suggested that those reporting hate incidents into third-party reporting projects, should not be ‘using up police time.’ This after she decided to include references to grooming and sexual abuse, making the bigoted link between innocent law-abiding Muslims and others who had been involved in grooming activities. The rage of Anne-Marie Waters though, did not last very long according to her tweets, yet they generated a barrage of hateful tweets to the victim thereafter.

Every day, tens of hate incident reports go into third-party hate crime organisations and agencies. Some of these reports lead to arrests and some provide strong intelligence to stop future crimes that could lead to more serious assaults. Such projects therefore provide confidence and support for victims.

Not according to Anne-Marie Waters, who decided that she knew better and in the process, spiralled the conversation into a blame game with the victim being targeted by someone who may know very little about the experiences of black and minority ethnic women and the racism, prejudice and bigotry that some have faced.

We have listed the threads of conversations below and these are just a snapshot of the abusive messages that Ms Ahmed received over a 48 hour period with a sustained and co-ordinated campaign to abuse and intimidate her.

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further whip up a storm, self styled ‘New Era’ Tommy Robinson joined in to agitate with the folowing tweet that further inflamed the situation. Given the abuse that Ms Ahmed was now receiving, this tweet exacerbated the volume and intensity of the abuse that she received and which was also directed at us.

The tweets below are just a snapshot of the hundreds of tweets that were directed at the victim.

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 4052 Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused https://www.faith-matters.org/muslim-female-on-advisory-board-to-government-on-tackling-islamophobia-incessantly-abused-3/ Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:11:07 +0000 https://i1.wp.com/tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Twitter-1.jpg?fit=300%2C158

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred. The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred.

The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to reach out to and ensure that all communities feel safe within our country.

On the 6th of January 2016, Mrs Ahmed simply tweeted out that she has been on a school run to pick up her 11-year-old daughter and stopped to wait at a junction with a car in front of her. This vehicle’s driver, it seems, was abusive towards Mrs Ahmed and subsequent tweets stated that she did not aggravate the driver and that she has previously suffered such intimidating incidents without any provocation.

Mrs Ahmed simply reported to us, (as a national third-party reporting project), the fact that she perceived this incident to be anti-Muslim in nature since she is visibly Muslim. She also stated that she did not do anything to provoke the individual concerned.  In fact, this is one of the reason’s why third-party reporting centres were set up after the Macpherson report of 1999. They were set up so that members of the public could report in hate incidents or hate crimes based on their perception of the incident. These reports would then be sent to the police who would either crime the report for action or place it as some form of intelligence so that if anything occurred in the future, there was a trace of the initial complaint.

Having received the tweets from Ms Ahmed, we ensured that we contacted her to find out more about what had happened and to re-assure her that we would be in touch with the police on the matter so that they could be in touch with her. For those who are not aware, this is one of the roles of a third-party national hate crime reporting project like Tell MAMA. Ensuring public confidence in the system to ensure justice for the victim is key. This means contacting victims to corroborate a version of events with any evidence available.

So what could possibly go wrong when a victim of perceived anti-Muslim prejudice reported into a national project, set up to support victims of anti-Muslim prejudice?

Well, along came Anne-Marie Waters, Chairwoman of ‘Sharia Watch’ and one of the self-appointed leaders of Pegida UK. Having imposed herself into the conversation, she suggested that those reporting hate incidents into third-party reporting projects, should not be ‘using up police time.’ This after she decided to include references to grooming and sexual abuse, making the bigoted link between innocent law-abiding Muslims and others who had been involved in grooming activities. The rage of Anne-Marie Waters though, did not last very long according to her tweets, yet they generated a barrage of hateful tweets to the victim thereafter.

Every day, tens of hate incident reports go into third-party hate crime organisations and agencies. Some of these reports lead to arrests and some provide strong intelligence to stop future crimes that could lead to more serious assaults. Such projects therefore provide confidence and support for victims.

Not according to Anne-Marie Waters, who decided that she knew better and in the process, spiralled the conversation into a blame game with the victim being targeted by someone who may know very little about the experiences of black and minority ethnic women and the racism, prejudice and bigotry that some have faced.

We have listed the threads of conversations below and these are just a snapshot of the abusive messages that Ms Ahmed received over a 48 hour period with a sustained and co-ordinated campaign to abuse and intimidate her.

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further whip up a storm, self styled ‘New Era’ Tommy Robinson joined in to agitate with the folowing tweet that further inflamed the situation. Given the abuse that Ms Ahmed was now receiving, this tweet exacerbated the volume and intensity of the abuse that she received and which was also directed at us.

The tweets below are just a snapshot of the hundreds of tweets that were directed at the victim.

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 4056 Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused https://www.faith-matters.org/muslim-female-on-advisory-board-to-government-on-tackling-islamophobia-incessantly-abused-4/ Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:11:07 +0000 https://i1.wp.com/tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Twitter-1.jpg

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred. The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

Akeela Ahmed has worked for many years in the community sector and currently also sits on the Cross Government Advisory Group to tackle Anti-Muslim hatred.

The Advisory group meets with ministers and advises and informs them of key areas and issues where anti-Muslim bigotry affects Muslim communities and is part of the Government’s strategy to reach out to and ensure that all communities feel safe within our country.

On the 6th of January 2016, Mrs Ahmed simply tweeted out that she has been on a school run to pick up her 11-year-old daughter and stopped to wait at a junction with a car in front of her. This vehicle’s driver, it seems, was abusive towards Mrs Ahmed and subsequent tweets stated that she did not aggravate the driver and that she has previously suffered such intimidating incidents without any provocation.

Mrs Ahmed simply reported to us, (as a national third-party reporting project), the fact that she perceived this incident to be anti-Muslim in nature since she is visibly Muslim. She also stated that she did not do anything to provoke the individual concerned.  In fact, this is one of the reason’s why third-party reporting centres were set up after the Macpherson report of 1999. They were set up so that members of the public could report in hate incidents or hate crimes based on their perception of the incident. These reports would then be sent to the police who would either crime the report for action or place it as some form of intelligence so that if anything occurred in the future, there was a trace of the initial complaint.

Having received the tweets from Ms Ahmed, we ensured that we contacted her to find out more about what had happened and to re-assure her that we would be in touch with the police on the matter so that they could be in touch with her. For those who are not aware, this is one of the roles of a third-party national hate crime reporting project like Tell MAMA. Ensuring public confidence in the system to ensure justice for the victim is key. This means contacting victims to corroborate a version of events with any evidence available.

So what could possibly go wrong when a victim of perceived anti-Muslim prejudice reported into a national project, set up to support victims of anti-Muslim prejudice?

Well, along came Anne-Marie Waters, Chairwoman of ‘Sharia Watch’ and one of the self-appointed leaders of Pegida UK. Having imposed herself into the conversation, she suggested that those reporting hate incidents into third-party reporting projects, should not be ‘using up police time.’ This after she decided to include references to grooming and sexual abuse, making the bigoted link between innocent law-abiding Muslims and others who had been involved in grooming activities. The rage of Anne-Marie Waters though, did not last very long according to her tweets, yet they generated a barrage of hateful tweets to the victim thereafter.

Every day, tens of hate incident reports go into third-party hate crime organisations and agencies. Some of these reports lead to arrests and some provide strong intelligence to stop future crimes that could lead to more serious assaults. Such projects therefore provide confidence and support for victims.

Not according to Anne-Marie Waters, who decided that she knew better and in the process, spiralled the conversation into a blame game with the victim being targeted by someone who may know very little about the experiences of black and minority ethnic women and the racism, prejudice and bigotry that some have faced.

We have listed the threads of conversations below and these are just a snapshot of the abusive messages that Ms Ahmed received over a 48 hour period with a sustained and co-ordinated campaign to abuse and intimidate her.

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further whip up a storm, self styled ‘New Era’ Tommy Robinson joined in to agitate with the folowing tweet that further inflamed the situation. Given the abuse that Ms Ahmed was now receiving, this tweet exacerbated the volume and intensity of the abuse that she received and which was also directed at us.

The tweets below are just a snapshot of the hundreds of tweets that were directed at the victim.

 

Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly AbusedMuslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused

The post Muslim Female on Advisory Board to Government on tackling Islamophobia Incessantly Abused appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 5063 Who is Pegida UK’s new leader Paul Weston? https://www.faith-matters.org/who-is-pegida-uks-new-leader-paul-weston/ Tue, 05 Jan 2016 19:12:52 +0000 https://tellmamauk.org/?p=7183 At a Bedfordshire pub, the UK branch of Pegida announced a new leadership structure, following its disastrous relaunch in late 2015. At the helm is Paul Weston, leader of the fringe party Liberty GB. Weston stood in the 2015 General Election and mustered just 0.4 per cent of the vote (158 votes) in Luton South.

The post Who is Pegida UK’s new leader Paul Weston? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]>

At a Bedfordshire pub, the UK branch of Pegida announced a new leadership structure, following its disastrous relaunch in late 2015.

At the helm is Paul Weston, leader of the fringe party Liberty GB. Weston stood in the 2015 General Election and mustered just 0.4 per cent of the vote (158 votes) in Luton South. His party came bottom in the 2014 European Elections with 0.02 per cent of the vote (2,494 votes).

He stood in the 2010 General Election for Ukip and achieved just 664 votes in the Cities Of London & Westminster constituency. In a 2010 interview, Weston warned that immigration results in the “ethnic cleansing of the English”. And that a civil war could occur in the next ’20 years’.

Apocalyptic and self-victimisation narratives continue to pervade his ideology and writings.

Following the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013, Weston warned that ‘we are losing a racial war, we are losing a cultural war‘. He claimed that you would find ‘no white people in Tower Hamlets’ due to rising demographics of non-whites and Muslims.

In response to accusations of racism, Weston responded “If I want to avoid a civil war happening in my country, I am prepared to accept being called a racist“.

Weston quit Ukip after Lord Pearson stood down as leader. For him, the party would take a soft line towards Islam under Nigel Farage. He wrote in 2012 that “I think Islam will cause even more death and destruction in Europe over the 21st century than Nazism and Communism caused over the 20th century”.

Ukip, however, are happy to exploit anti-Islam sentiments when politically expedient.

Weston took on the chairmanship of the British Freedom Party (BFP) in 2011. A year later and the party announced an alliance with the English Defence League (EDL). The EDL’s founder and ex-leader, Tommy Robinson, and his cousin, Kevin Carroll, joined the leadership structure.

In the 2012 Local Elections the BFP stood six candidates (five in Liverpool and one in Basildon) with derisive results.

Weston left the BFP before it dissolved. He launched Liberty GB in 2013. The foundations of Liberty GB are contingent on cultural nationalism and anti-Islam sentiments.

In 2014, police arrested Mr Weston after quoting from Churchill’s book The River War. In truth, the arrest had more to do with a failure to follow a dispersal order, and charges were later dropped.

Nor is Mr Weston a stranger to Pegida. He spoke at their Newcastle rally in March 2015; where he went on to compare the Prophet Muhammad to the ISIS extremist Mohammed Emwazi. A year earlier, his speaking engagements included EDL rallies.

Mr Weston’s links counter-jihad circles runs deeper than his political career. His blogs on the counter-jihad site Gates of Vienna began in 2007. He attended a Brussels conference in in that same year alongside Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Lars Hedegaard, and Bat Ye’or. Mr Weston attended the 2008 counter-jihad conference in Vienna. And in 2011, Weston brought a delegation of BFP members to the London counter-jihad conference. At the 2012 counter-jihad conference in Brussels, Tommy Robinson spoke on behalf of the BFP and EDL.

A discussion of Pegida’s new leadership is not complete without reference to Anne Marie Waters. She chairs an organisation called Sharia Watch. In May of last year, Ms Waters invited Tommy Robinson to speak at the launch of Voice UK – Victims of Islamic Cultural Extremism.

In the past she has contributed to Lars Hedegaard’s counter-jihad website Dispatch International. And shared a platform with him in 2011. In 2013, Anne Marie Waters

Before the 2015 election, a Daily Mirror sting exposed her anti-Islamic views during a Mothers Against Radical Islam And Sharia (MARIAS) rally. As Ukip’s parliamentary candidate for Lewisham East she went on to gain 3,886 votes (9.1 per cent).

Waters and Weston were due to speak at the ‘Draw Mohammed’ cartoons exhibition. Amid security concerns, the event was later cancelled.

So why the change? Pegida hope to tap the wellspring of anxieties towards Islam and appeal to ‘middle England‘ and individuals put off by the violence of the EDL. Pegida affords a new platform for Tommy Robinson’s unrepentant views towards Islam – without the toxic legacy of the EDL.

George Whale, Liberty GB’s Treasurer, who sat on the BFP’s Executive Council, has been invited into Pegida UK’s administrative team. So has Liberty GB’s Outreach Officer Jack Buckby – who posed for photos with former BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Pegida’s leadership change demonstrates the insulated yet interconnected networks within counter-jihad circles. This contiguous ideology extends across Europe and North America. It creates its own online echo chambers and speaks to simplistic, binary world views.

Pegida hopes this interconnectivity will come to fruition with simultaneous protests across Europe on February 6.

The post Who is Pegida UK’s new leader Paul Weston? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

]]> 1650 Why did Tommy Robinson move from the EDL to Pegida? https://www.faith-matters.org/why-did-tommy-robison-move-from-the-edl-to-pegida/ Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:09:00 +0000 https://religiousreader.org/?p=1430 This October marks two years since Tommy Robinson departed from the English Defence League (EDL). The Quilliam Foundation had called it “a huge success for community relations in the United Kingdom” and urged others, within far-right and Islamist circles to follow suit. Their staff “facilitated” both Robinson’s departure, and that of the EDL’s co-founder, Kevin Carroll. Quilliam had also offered both men education on Islam and training in lobbying. Robinson aimed to tackle Islamist ideologies “not with violence but with better, democratic ideas”. He later told BBC Radio 5’s Nicky Campbell “I want to lead the revolution against Islamist ideology, I don’t want to lead the revolution against Muslims“. When asked if he had regrets, he replied “I apologise if what I have said and represented has not resonated individually with Muslims”. Beyond these pristine, mineralised and rehearsed statements, the cracks sat in plain sight. Days before the announcement, Robinson’s Twitter feed continued to pump out anti-Islam content. Two days before Quilliam’s press conference Robinson had tweeted “Muslims created Islamophobia themselves… Go figure!!! They don’t challenge the extremists so we will!!!” Days earlier he tweeted that “Global war/holocaust on Christians… We all know it’s #Islam fueling it…“ Robinson retweeted an [...]

The post Why did Tommy Robison move from the EDL to Pegida? appeared first on Religious Reader.

]]>

This October marks two years since Tommy Robinson departed from the English Defence League (EDL). The Quilliam Foundation had called it “a huge success for community relations in the United Kingdom” and urged others, within far-right and Islamist circles to follow suit. Their staff “facilitated” both Robinson’s departure, and that of the EDL’s co-founder, Kevin Carroll. Quilliam had also offered both men education on Islam and training in lobbying.

Robinson aimed to tackle Islamist ideologies “not with violence but with better, democratic ideas”. He later told BBC Radio 5’s Nicky Campbell “I want to lead the revolution against Islamist ideology, I don’t want to lead the revolution against Muslims“.

When asked if he had regrets, he replied “I apologise if what I have said and represented has not resonated individually with Muslims”.

Beyond these pristine, mineralised and rehearsed statements, the cracks sat in plain sight.

Days before the announcement, Robinson’s Twitter feed continued to pump out anti-Islam content. Two days before Quilliam’s press conference Robinson had tweeted “Muslims created Islamophobia themselves… Go figure!!! They don’t challenge the extremists so we will!!!” Days earlier he tweeted that “Global war/holocaust on Christians… We all know it’s #Islam fueling it…“

Robinson retweeted an EDL endorsement on October 7 2013. Before that, Robinson had failed to intimidate the editor of the anti-far-right website EDL News by posting photos of an unconnected individual’s house on Twitter.

In the subsequent media fallout he remained coy about whether his views had changed. He reiterated to Jeremy Paxman that mosques in the UK must curb the influence of “preachers of hate” and “an end to Islamic immigration until the problem is solved“.

Robinson continued in his refusal to denounce past statements that included opposition to the construction of new mosques “because they preach homophobia and antisemitism“.

He often positioned himself as the authentic and marginalised working-class voice. Robinson exploited social marginalisation and alienation to push negative ideas about Islam and Muslims. Yet, the most active counter-voices to the EDL came from working-class, multicultural communities. Nor did Robinson apologise for the financial strain EDL marches brought upon the very communities he claimed to represent.

Two key Islamophobic ideologues Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller disowned Robinson. Then had a change of heart after “Tommy Robinson has written to us emphasizing that he has not changed his positions”. Both individuals are still banned from entering the UK. Geller later broke off links with Robinson in December 2013.

Jonathan Russell, political liaison officer at the Quilliam Foundation, wrote on October 28 2013: “It might sound surprising, but Tommy Robinson and the senior members of the Quilliam Foundation have something in common: they decided to walk away from extremism“. The comment was made in good faith with some trust in Robinson. That trust was to be trampled upon.

Robinson has always refuted the position that he has turned away from his past. His departure was contingent on ‘infiltration’ from extreme far-right elements and a rejection of street protests. He has never considered himself a ‘former extremist’. A position he reinforced last month when he tweeted to journalist Mehdi Hasan “I didn’t need de radicalising, I’ve been right all along“.

For Robinson, the EDL represented the best and worst of people he had met. Deep down though, even if he will not admit it, the EDL had hit a glass ceiling. Only once had the movement attracted more than 2,000 people to a single protest – that happened in Robinson’s hometown of Luton and it brought together Defence League and other far-right factions from across Europe in 2011.

In 2012, a YouGov poll found that 53 per cent of the British public considered the EDL a racist organisation. A vast majority (77 per cent) of the 1,282 sample would never join the organisation.

In response to Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder in Woolwich, the EDL tweeted “EDL leader Tommy Robinson on way to Woolwich now, Take to the streets peeps ENOUGH IS ENOUGH“. That call to arms created a groundswell of social media interest. And brought thousands of new Facebook likes. On a street level, around 1,000 supporters attended their Downing Street protest on May 27 2013. Two days earlier, between 1,500 and 2,000 supporters attended the EDL’s rally in Newcastle. A month later and the march in Tower Hamlets only attracted around 500 supporters. In spite of their exploitation of a national tragedy, the EDL could not replicate its rising online support on the streets. This does not, however, seek to downplay how the EDL fosters hostility and hatred online or at protests.

Academics like Elisabeth Ivarsflaten theorised that some far-right groups are unable to fight off accusations of racism because ‘their history provides no evidence to support such a contention’. The EDL failed to offer a positive legacy to attract better educated and middle-class members of society who otherwise are put off by the EDL’s history of hooliganism and violence. Anxieties towards Muslims are mainstream yet it was beyond Robinson’s reach in the EDL. A point confirmed by an admin on Robinson’s Facebook page who replied to a comment about Pegida in February “why walk with the EDL? you wont get majority of UK with you. You need to be like Germany and get middle class with you. Admin 2”.

As Robinson mused on October 2 2013: “The biggest decision I have to make is how to evolve , how to use this voice we have created so it is taken more seriously“.

Speculation grew that this evolution would come in the form of a think tank. In January 2014, Robinson started his 18 month sentence for mortgage fraud.

Before entering prison, it emerged that a Northumberland school had cancelled Tommy Robinson’s visit. He was due to visit GCSE and A-level religious education classes with Dr Usama Hasan of the Quilliam Foundation.

A month later and it emerged that Maajid Nawaz, the Quilliam Foundation’s founding chairman, had written to a senior Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) official in October 2013, requesting government money to ween Robinson away from dependence on EDL donors. That funding did not materialise as Nawaz would later tweet to journalist Sunny Hundal “we applied for programme to support his personal change,distinct from leaving the group. If approved, may have yielded results”.

Robinson was released in June under licence but in October 2014 he was recalled to prison. He spoke at the Oxford Union a month later.

In a December 2014 interview, Robinson hinted at a possible return to the EDL. He also explained why he was voting Ukip, and warned of an impending civil war between Muslims and non-Muslims.

When asked if saw a future with the EDL last March, Robinson responded “I see EDL doing well and I am certainly open to it“.

The Dudley election scandal raised further questions about Robinson’s EDL links. Afzal Amin had allegedly plotted to win votes by stopping a fake EDL protest. Present in the meeting was Tommy Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes.

In exchange for their support, Amin promised to be an “unshakeable” ally for the EDL in parliament if elected. The Conservative Party later suspended Amin.

One of the terms of Robinson’s early release from prison included no contact with the EDL until the end of his original sentence. If that meeting had any influence on the decision to recall Robinson to prison remains unclear. Robinson then found himself under arrest again in August.

Free from prison and it seems that Robinson’s focus is now with Pegida. But this is nothing new as Robinson endorsed the movement last January. He confirmed that an associate and former member of the EDL had flown to Germany to meet with the group. In September his Facebook page promoted a Pegida rally in London.

Earlier this month, Robinson travelled to the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands to speak at a Pegida rally. He was unapologetic about forming the EDL and told the crowd: “I am proud of forming a resistance movement in my own country to the Islamisation of my town and country”.

Robinson continued “Do I think we should go back to the street demonstrations that we had with the EDL? No. But I think the time has come to unite across Europe because we have to save our culture.”

A week later and Robinson spoke at Pegida’s anniversary rally in Dresden – where an estimated 40,000 people attended. Robinson again justified the necessity of Defence Leagues:

“Though I am no longer involved with the English Defence League I know that since almost the beginning of its existence many in Germany have supported our efforts to speak the truth about Islam.  Even last week members of the German Defence League travelled 10 hours to Aylesbury to join the shout out against Muslim rape gangs that have proliferated in our beautiful country.  I salute those determined GDL members!

Defence Leagues throughout Europe are necessary because Governments and Bureaucracies refuse to listen to the fears and concerns of the vast majority of the people.  These Governments and Bureaucracies need help in getting their priorities right!”

Robinson had shared a platform with a man who joked about placing Muslims in concentration camps.

His social media feeds continue to endorse the UK branch of the Pegida movement. A movement not plagued with the legacy of street thuggery.

Other tweets continue to push Islamophobic conspiracies. Or mythologise Muslims as rapists and paedophiles. On Facebook he posted “Real refugees would be happy to be SAFE in any European country. These Muslims are taking the piss making demands & rioting over it”.

Amid unproductive university bans Robinson also found time to speak at Harrow School on October 13.

Quitting the EDL helped Tommy Robinson find new and greater platforms to spread his unrepentant views. Some individuals are sincere in their efforts to change their views; but from the start Robinson has not.

The post Why did Tommy Robison move from the EDL to Pegida? appeared first on Religious Reader.

]]> 1382