Know surrender!

QUILLIAM FACILITATES TOMMY ROBINSON LEAVING THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE

POSTED IN: 2013, PRESS RELEASES | OCTOBER 8, 2013 AT 08.47

Quilliam is proud to announce that Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll, the leaders of the anti-Islamist group, the English Defence League (EDL), have decided to leave the group. Having set up the EDL, infamous for its street protests, in 2009, they wish to exit this group, because they feel they can no longer keep extremist elements at bay.

Tommy Robinson 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.

Quilliam has been working with Tommy to achieve this transition, which represents a huge success for community relations in the United Kingdom. We have previously identified the symbiotic relationship between far-right extremism and Islamism and think that this event can dismantle the underpinnings of one phenomenon while removing the need for the other phenomenon.

Jonathan Russell @JRussellEsq

Quilliam facilitates the decapitation of the #EDL. Here's the moment

     

9:55 AM - 8 Oct 2013

We hope to help Tommy invest his energy and commitment in countering extremism of all kinds, supporting the efforts to bring along his former followers and encouraging his critique of Islamism as well as his concern with far-right extremism. We call all of Tommy’s former colleagues in the EDL to follow in his footsteps and also call on Islamist extremist leaders to follow this example and leave their respective groups. Tommy and Kevin believe the voice they have created can be channelled in a positive direction. Quilliam stands ready to facilitate such moves across the spectrum.

Quilliam Chairman and Co-Founder Maajid Nawaz said:

As well as being a very positive change for the United Kingdom, this is a very proud moment for Quilliam. This represents not a change but a continuation for us, as challenging extremism of all kinds forms the basis of our work. We have been able to show that Britain stands together against extremism regardless of political views and hope to continue supporting Tommy and Kevin in their journey to counter Islamism and neo-Nazi extremism.

We are hosting a press conference for Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll’s departure from the EDL at an undisclosed location in London today, 8 October 2013 at 6:30pm and will field all questions then. 

Entrance will be strictly conditional on the presentation of press passes; please contactmedia@quilliamfoundation.org or call 020 7182 7275 or 020 7182 7278 if you would like to attend and more details will be provided but please do not RSVP if you are not press.

http://www.independent.co.uk/...

Shock as EDL leader Tommy Robinson quits over 'dangers of far-right extremism'

www.independent.co.uk

Counter-extremism think tank Quilliam has announced Tommy Robinson and Kevin Car...See more

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/08/tommy-robinson-quits-edl_n_4061922.html?1381223771&utm_hp_ref=twitter&comm_ref=false

Tommy Robinson Quits EDL, Saying He Can No Longer Control Extremism

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Tommy Robinson has sensationally quit the English Defence League, saying he can no longer control the extremist elements within the organisation. 

Tommy Robinson quits the EDL

www.politics.co.uk

The leader of the English Defence League (EDL) has quit the organisation in a dramatic move which saw him warn of the dangers of "far right extremism".

EDL Hate music, love racism and the tactics of intimidation

From Exposing the English Defence League by Janie Jones:

The EDL have never shied away from using tactics of intimidation. All our admins have had many many threatening messages over the last 4 years. It seems though that the EDL have now taken this up as an official tactic. A couple of weeks ago The EDL intimidated the owners of a pub in Ipswich into cancelling a Love Music, hate racism gig, organised by 16 year old kids:

A group was set up to ensure that this would not happen again and that the gig would go ahead. An insider in the EDL told us that the EDL had a new tactic :
This is just one of the messages admins of “stand against the EDL in Ipswich & Suffolk” received. Ginge is one of the EDL organisers in Ipswich.

Lets not think this was isolated, who can forget the lovely leader of the EDL stalking a random man after picking a name from a phone book.

Now the EDL and their good friends Casuals United have obviously decided they didn’t look pathetic enough being scared of kids so have threatened to demo a disco. Yep, a disco.



After we reported this on our fb site one of our admins got this message:

So it would seem new EDL tactics of intimidation are based on the fact that some random people once got one of their events cancelled so now they are going to try and do the same to any opposition. They are clever guys. 

While it is easy to laugh at the EDL it has to be remembered that members of one of their offshoot groups were recently jailed for attacking anti racists.  They have been praised as heroes by many EDL members. 

We can also look across to Greece and Golden Dawn to see where these violent intimidation tactics can lead. 

We won’t be scared off and we won’t be intimidated. It is time though for the police and politicians to start taking note of these very real threats, stand up and be counted.

Oi Tommy!

Oi @EDLTrobinson is this your front door?? pic.twitter.com/km54kKdq9d

EDL Egos

East Anglian Patriots

23 hours ago via Mobile

Egos have no place in the patriot movement
If people concentrated on the job in hand we would get more done
Egos and infighting will be our down fall
Which begs the question of why it happens
Are these people plants ?
What is their agenda ?
Those with the egos, hidden agendas to fulfil their own gains
Bullied as children ?
Questions need to be asked of these people because they are the very one's destroying the patriot movement from within
Why ?

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  East Anglian Patriots

  3 minutes ago near Norwich

  Well we would love to go to the Bradford demo but while there are ego morons in the local edl we will not be attending its a shame really as unity should be the key !!!

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  • Gaz Pat Riot Field likes this.

  
  

EDL leader stalks and sends menacing tweets to wrong person

From The Guardian by Peter Walker:

Tommy Robinson tweeted pictures as he approached what he thought was home of website editor Gary Moon. Only it wasn't

Moon asks Robinson round for tea

As intimidation tactics by a leader of a far-right group go, it sounds scarily effective: using Twitter to invite yourself round to the home of a leading critic for "a chat" before tweeting photos of the person's block of flats, the front door of their apartment and a letter addressed to them.

However, it would have been somewhat more effective if Tommy Robinson, the leader of the English Defence League, had not gone to the address of someone with a differently-spelled name about 40 miles away from his intended target.

The editor of EDL News, a critical website and Twitter feed which bills itself as "bringing you the news that the English Defence League often won't", has labelled the incident embarrassing and bizarre for Robinson.

Robinson tweets a picture of a block of flats

The EDL News website recounted how Robinson – whose vehemently anti-Islam group leads protests that have regularly become violent – was seemingly angry at criticism of the EDL and used Twitter last month to say he knew where its editor, Gary Moon, lived. Moon responded by inviting Robinson for a cup of tea.

Then, on Wednesday evening, Robinson sent Moon a series of picture-based tweets, since deleted – in the unfolding saga style of the boxer Curtis Woodhouse who tracked down a Twitter troll in similar fashion.

One showed the outside of a redbrick block of flats with a message saying, "look familiar". The next showed a photo of a white front door, with the accompanying tweet reading, "Gary open up".

Robinson tweets 'Open up Gary' at what he thinks is Moon's door

Moon, who lives in London and has helped run the EDL News site since 2010, said he was away watching football but was alerted to the tweets and photos by a friend, and left baffled.

"I didn't understand them," Moon said. "I thought he seemed to be stalking someone but it didn't seem to have anything to do with me." Then came another tweet, showing a man's hand holding a letter addressed to a "Garry Moon" at an address in Reading. This was when the penny dropped.

Moon said: "Robinson had been helped out in the past by someone who tracked down the servers we were using at the time, which were in Reading. I thought, 'He's only gone and found a slightly different name in a phone book and headed to Reading by mistake'."

His Reading-based near namesake was seemingly out at the time, Moon said, and probably never knew the EDL leader had been knocking at his door.

Moon said the EDL had largely ignored his website until it began raising questions about the group's financing.

Robinson seemingly fails to notice the spelling 

of this Garry Moon is different 

to the one he's coming to see

Last month, the upmarket London department store Selfridges briefly suspended a member of its sales staff after Robinson complained he had been refused service in the menswear section and sworn at.

While Selfridges treated Robinson and the man accompanying him to a meal in recompense, it is understood the shop could find no evidence the EDL leader was abused.

Robinson recounted that he was ejected from a Milton Keynes casino later the same day after, he believes, being recognised. 

Robinson could not be reached for comment about the EDL News tweets.

EDL's self-importance punctured

Tommy Robinson in particular and EDL members in general crowed that their street movement of drunken hooligans was definitely NOT RACIST.

How could the EDL be racist when it was supported by British Sikhs?

The boast of Sikh support was repeated in many written comments in social media and on many sites, comments now deleted or sites now disappeared.

Disappeared because the boast was simply not true.

Thoughts on Shakespeare, by East Anglian EDL

Edl East Anglian Division Page shared a link from the BBC

2 hours ago

Hip-hop Hamlet 'racist and evil' | EastAnglianE...

www.scoop.it

Making poor ethnic minority pupils study the classics through "inane, youth-centric, dumbed down" methods is "viciously racist" and "positively evil", the Tory conference hears.

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  Richard Tyrrell likes this.
• 

  Amy Marshall Shakespere is Shakespere. You cannot dilute it and make it 'street' without making a mockery of it. Again, its all for eradicating our culture for stupidity.

  Like · Reply · about an hour ago
  
  
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  Ray Webster uh if its that bad then it ll fail like bet at any given chance they ll make a islam version and any bad review called raciest even tho its a relgion Id love to hear a hip hop version rember head shoulders knees and toes got spiced up and was being played all over

  Like · Reply · about an hour ago via mobile

Knight-knight, East Anglian Division EDL

Knights are a favourite of the East Anglian EDL, appearing all over members' FB pages and in websites such as the East Anglian EDL and East Anglian Patriots.  

This one lives with "honor".  Is it an American knight?  The US did not have knights, right?  Is it a knight character from a foreign video game?

The non-British spelling is a strange choice for anyone calling himself an English patriot. 

The East Anglian Patriots have their own logo featuring two knights bent as if in prayerful homage to a - dragon?  But isn't the Medieval dragon of the West a symbol of all that is base in Humankind, the evil that knights are sworn to vanquish through strength and self-discipline?  

And yet here the East Anglian EDL appear to worship the dragon, which for a real knight is Evil personified, to be crushed beneath the feet.  Or at least is Welsh.  

Some other pictures used by members of the East Anglian EDL are harder to fathom.  What do you make of this strange image?

Here metaphors are mixed and eras are scrambled with the gayest of abandon, as a Crusader in a dirty tabard kneels to Jesus on the pebbled shores of some northern lake.

Is the Crusader seeking forgiveness for violence done, or benediction?  Is this the Jesus of "righteous anger" or the "Love thine enemy" version?  Is the Crusader dead and meeting judgement?  It is a creepy picture for many reasons. 

And then the pictures change from weird to downright laughable, such as the one above.  

It seems to feature a crowned Aslan and an armed Jesus, flanked by two knights, all in a muddle.  One shield with a cross of St George is evidently not enough, two appear with no regard to design, balance or allegorical sense. 

Obviously this has nothing to do with the EDL, it is the Narnian Defence League, Wardrobe Division. 

The BNP were brought down in part by the derision that greeted their undignified antics, one of which was their unforgettable colander knight, seen here with the unlamented Nick Griffin:

In East Anglia we have our own knights, real men of rich lives, rather than images from foreign comic books, non-English gaming characters or in costumes made from mother's curtains and a kitchen implement.  

How about Sir Clement Paston of Oxnead?

You that behold this stately marble tombe, 
And long to know, who here entombed lyes, 

Here rests the corps, and shall 'till day of dome, 

Of Clement Paston, fortunate and wise; 

Fourth son to old Sir William Paston, Knight, 

Who dwells with God in sphere of christal bright.

Of Brutus race princes he served four, 
In peace and war, as fortune did command.

Sometimes by sea, and sometime on the shore, 

The French and Scot he often did withstand, 

A Pere of France, in spight of all his betters, 

He took in fight, and brought him home in fetters.

Oxnede he buildt, in which he lived long, 

With great renowne for feeding of the poor, 

To frinds, a frind, of foes he took no wrong, 

Twice forty years he lived, and somewhat more, 

And at the last by dombe of hie beheste, 

His soul in heaven, his body here doth rest.

Obt. 18 Febr. 1597.

But the members of East Anglian EDL are oblivious to local history and the traditions of real knights. They are not interested in the very English history or culture they profess to defend.  

Rather they are content to tootle along lost in their own fantasy world where EDL "knights" frighten sixteen year old girls and attack critical bloggers like me with foul-mouthed threats.

In reality the self-described "knights" of the EDL are cowards, deluding themselves with confused imagery of valour and courage, when their actual reaction to any real problem or challenge is simple:

Another threat from Ipswich EDL

The Ipswich EDL destroyed plans for a Love Music Hate Racism gig envisioned by some aspirational teenagers in Ipswich. 

EDL members even took gloating group photographs beside signs announcing the cancelled event - 

One great outcome, however, has been that several more Ipswich youngsters have come together in order to plan another Love Music Hate Racism event.

This is partly to show the Ipswich EDL that local people will not be intimidated and bullied.

It is also designed to showcase local talent and to offer the community an evening of fun in a safe environment.  

The plan is still being formulated in private, for obvious reasons, but the event will be publicised when the time is ripe.

In the meantime the Ipswich EDL has got wind of these plans. The response was not long in coming, this time from someone called Keith Ginge Jason Bowers, apparently an organiser of Ipswich EDL.  

The message itself is almost incoherent, but if this is indeed a real message, there is some underlying menace:

From Exposetweets @exposetweets:

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Yes, the local EDL did invite a local Muslim leader to march with them.  But Manwar Ali says he was "naive".  Maybe "used" would be a better word.  

He reached this conclusion not because of threats from the UAF, SWP, or any Dark Forces, but rather through his own observation that there is difference between what the EDL says and does officially and what the EDL says and does unofficially.

Point of information from EADT24:

Ipswich: Islamic leader would not walk with EDL again

The leading Ipswich community leader who joined members of the EDL in a procession to the town’s Cenotaph earlier this month said his move was “politically naive.”

Earlier this month Manwar Ali, the chief executive of Islamic charity Jimas, and other Muslims joined a small group of far-right protesters who walked from the town centre to the Cenotaph in Christchurch Park to lay wreaths in memory of Drummer Lee Rigby who died in Woolwich.

The news of the walk travelled around the country, but did attract criticism from some Islamic and anti-fascist organisations.

Now Mr Ali has said he would not take part in a walk with the EDL again – but still felt it was right to try to open a dialogue with them.

He said: 

When you look at what the leaders of the organisation say, and what the local people who came along feel, they are different. 

In hindsight I would not do this again – but I do think it was right to show respect to Lee Rigby and his family.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr Ali has correctly identified the difference between what the EDL say and what they do.

For example, the Ipswich EDL calls itself "non-violent" and then Keith Ginge Jason Bowers sends a threatening message such as the one above.

The Ipswich EDL calls itself "non-racist", but it closed down an anti-racist gig and threatens to close down the next anti-racist gig.

The confused members of Ipswich EDL obviously have major issues to resolve.