You know you’ve hit a nerve of truth every time the American left begins to attack even the source of a news story. In this case Media Matters, faithful Doberman of the Democratic Party, attacked Fox News flagship ‘The O’ Reilly Factor’ for booking Tommy Robinson – leader of the English Defence League (EDL).
To be fair to Media Matters, scrutiny of 30-year-old Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) is appropriate. Born in Luton, less than an hour from the centre of London, to Irish parents Robinson has grown up in an area populated heavily by Irish immigrants, Poles, and increasing numbers of Muslims. Since 2009 he has been the most prominent leader of the EDL, a loosely organized street protest group targeting immigration and Islam.
Robinson has had his share of legal troubles including incarceration for a year for assaulting the police in 2005 in an altercation involving his girlfriend and her cocaine. There have been arrests for incidents involving EDL protests, and Robinson was imprisoned again this year, serving 2 months of a 10 month sentence, after entering the USA on a false passport.
Yet here is Robinson, less than 4 months after release and still wearing electronic monitoring, appearing on The O’ Reilly Factor, the top rated American show in cable news. The segment opens with O’ Reilly commenting on the recent murder of a British soldier in London by Muslim extremists, followed by scenes from EDL demonstrations in which Robinson can be seen yelling into the camera “this issue is political Islam”.
For all Robinson’s faults his appearance on ‘The Factor’, taped a few days earlier, makes a lot of valid points. He dressed well and was clear and concise in his statements. Many unsuspecting viewers would no doubt have been won over by the genuineness of his presentation alone.
Robinson points out correctly that amongst other things soldiers have been abused on homecoming parades by militant Islamists, that the birth rate of Muslims to non-Muslims in Britain is almost 4 times greater, and that politicians of all stripes have been afraid to tackle the problem for fear of political incorrectness.
His unflattering description of David Cameron was nevertheless illustrative of the inept ineffectiveness successive British governments have displayed toward the situation. He said “David Cameron, he’s like the boy that’s been bullied and he’s trying to make friends with the bully cos he’s too scared to stand up to him”.
As Robinson continues to assert the position that the English people have to stand up themselves because their government is inept, O’Reilly starts to go off the reservation citing his one year living in London as sufficient knowledge to understand all things relevant. Said O’Reilly “I don’t understand why you (Robinson) say that the Prime Minster and the powers that be in parliament are afraid of the Muslims, what are they afraid of if certain Muslim groups are causing trouble as you assert they are, you would think that the English people would want to crack down, why would the government be afraid of that”.
O’Reilly should really know better. Clearly the problems exist and haven’t been addressed successfully, so his assertion that the government would do it because it’s the obvious thing to do is absurd. He only has to look at New York City government to do know that which he experiences daily as a resident and commuter.
Robinson responds with a point that rarely gets made with a sufficiency of impact and understanding. Arabs/Muslims are in 48% of the British stock-market, they own ports, shopping centres and football (soccer) clubs. Those things hit at the heart of British commerce, lifestyle and passion. That degree of influence buys political clout and causes politicians to tip the hat to those that have the wealth. That happens in all countries but when the masters are foreigners of a different faith, the matrix of society begins to forcibly undergo change.
Robinson then makes the point that the government can’t identify the problem as it attacks EDL for essentially stirring the pot. Whereas it didn’t come up in the interview the 3 biggest political parties in Britain (Conservative, Lib-Dem & Labour) have all consistently backed a group called United Against Fascism which contains a lot of hooligans and street thugs who like to start fights and frequently show up at EDL events. It is these people who frequently cause EDL demonstrations to become violent.
O’Reilly now becomes a walking contradiction. The man who rightly said “we have a Muslim problem” on ABC’s ‘The View’, causing 2 hosts to walk off the set, now tells Robinson that he comes across as someone with an anti-Muslim agenda for saying that “Islam is not a religion of peace, it never has been and it never will be”.
O’Reilly continues pointing out that Robinson has been called a fascist and a racist. Robinson’s response is one that many should take note of. He said “That weak argument by calling us hooligans or racists or fascist is just the easiest way to stifle the debate because then they don’t actually have to address the points we’re bringing up”.
David Cameron is quoted on ‘The Factor’ as saying that the EDL is demonizing Islam, and this makes the point above. While 30% of incarcerated Muslims in the UK belong to the terror group Al-Muhajiroun the Prime Minister says its co-founder Anjem Choudary “is one of those people who needs to be looked at seriously in terms of the legality of what he's saying because he strays, I think, extremely close to the line of encouraging hatred, extremism and violence”.
It is astonishing that the British Prime Minister views a religion, of whom 30% of its adherents belong to a terrorist group, as less of a problem than the people who protest about them, even if they do go over the line on occasion.
The EDL organization is principally organic, originally organized by football supporter groups that posses the organizational know-how to move groups of people to a specified location and coalesce together in a unified fashion. The football element has brought a violent and confrontational edge to the group but they have evolved through social media organization now numbering up to 100,000 adherents with a core of about 500.
In some respects they are like the American tea-party, a loose coalition of groups bonding around a few key issues. For the Americans it's taxes and growing government protested by Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Christians and Conservatives. For the English it’s the spread of Islam and excessive immigration with protestors from most political ideologies ranging from angry concerned citizens who feel powerless to the more cynical and organized racists of the British National Party.
Robinson also points out that the British people, despite their government, can’t be bought and this is true. History is replete with examples of tyranny being defeated by popular uprising. The fight for the future of Britain is on; some of its leaders may not be perfect statesman but in the words of Francis Scott Key “then conquer we must if our cause it is just (and) in God is our trust.”
