EDL Leader On VoxAfrica Review

The EDL leader, Tommy Robinson, appeared on a debate on VoxAfrica in the topic of ‘Is Islam Synonymous With Terrorism?’. We will highlight the problematic statements he said, adding appropriate notes inside the brackets at the end of each particular verse or statement.

Looking his best for the debate.

Quote: Islamic extremism has ‘got more funding from Saudi Arabia’ [That’s inaccurate and is really hard to prove]

Quote: ‘There is a problem in their [Islamic] ideology… It’s not integrating, it’s not working in Europe, it’s not working in Britain’ [But it is, the vast majority of Muslims integrate and live peacefully in Britain and Europe]

Quote: ‘If it’s not coming from Islam… then why are there 18,000 terrorist attacks since September the 11th?’ [There are many reasons why people may commit acts of violence in retaliation such as the invasion of Iraq and Afganistan, Western foreign policy, mass civilian deaths done by forces in other countries... etc.]

Quote: ‘I don’t see Christians, Sikhs or Hindus blowing things up worldwide on a daily basis’ [But neither do Muslims blow things up on a daily basis, so this is a inaccurate and irrational justification]

Quote: ‘When you talk about Anders Breivik… There was a big media campaign to link him with us’ [This is a made-up conspiracy. And Anders Breivik claimed he had links with the EDL himself]

Quote: ‘He [Anders Breivik] describes us as ‘naïve fools’ [But he also said the EDL had noble intentions and that he himself had more than 600 EDL Facebook friends! Tommy Robinson again, omits information out and he's done this before]

Quote: ‘We’ve [the EDL] killed no-one, we’ve attacked no-one…’ [But there have been many incidents of violence and assault inside the EDL membership. Even Tommy has been convicted of assault (Click here to read about it)]

Failure

Throughout the whole programme, the EDL leader proves that he really doesn't know what he talks about.

• Tommy comes prepared and has a ‘violent’ Quranic verse prepared on his mobile to read out to justify his argument. He doesn’t even read the context behind it, even when Abdullah tells him too.

• Tommy tells Raza: ‘You called for a Holy War’, then switches back to ‘You called for Jihad’ and makes a link between the two terms. The term ‘Jihad’ doesn’t even mean ‘Holy War’ at all, it means ‘to strive’ and ‘to struggle’.

• When Abdullah brings up Richard Price (the convicted paedophile who was the EDL co-ordinator), Tommy simply brushes it off and says he wasn’t affiliated. Richard Price was within the EDL and this is well-known.

The EDL even tried campaigning for a paedophile.