Britain First leader doesn’t turn up to debate

Far-right group Britain First makes it out to be a force to be reckoned with, when it well and truly isn’t as we have wrote about in this blog.

Picking on the elderly during their 'mosque invasions'.

Yesterday on 12 June, the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) held a cross-panel debate entitled, “Does Islam Clash with British values?” where Tommy Robinson (former leader of the English Defence League), Paul Golding (Britain First) and Anne Marie Waters (ShariaWatch) were invited to speak on the panel. 

According to 5Pillars, Golding informed iERA on Thursday evening that “upon further reflection, security considerations and other issues, I have decided to decline the attendance.”

When assured by iERA that three security guards would be allocated to Golding upon entering and exiting the venue, he said “unfortunately it’s a leadership decision” - even though Golding is supposed to be the leader.

Robinson did not turn up to the event, and Waters did turn up to the event but did not participate in the debate.

Event coordinator for iERA, Mohammed Hussain, told 5Pillars that Robinson and Golding were “last resort” after exhausting every other option to get more “mainstream” intellectuals or academics on the panel to discuss Islam and British values.

He also said: “The Quilliam Foundation, the Henry Jackson Society, Sam Westrop from Gatestone Institute, the National Secular Society, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, the British Humanist Association, Melanie Phillips, David Starkey, Yasmin Ali-Bhai Brown, Richard Littlejohn, Andrew Gilligan, David Aaronovitch are just some of the individuals and organisations who iERA personally invited, but were either unavailable, declined to participate or did not reply.”