It was quite a remarkable turnaround two weeks ago as Tommy Robinson, founder of the street action group the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009, suddenly announced he was stepping out and would begin to work with Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam foundation, a group of Muslims forming a think-tank who work to promote counter-strategies to Islamic radicalization.
The primary work of the EDL has been to highlight the subjection of British culture to radical Islam through demonstrations and marches so the sudden shift to working with a Muslim has caught almost everybody off-guard.
Nawaz is a British Pakistani who formerly belonged to the Islamic revolutionary group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which earned him a 5 years in an Egyptian prison, but has recently been seen internationally promoting his book ‘Radical: My Journey out of Islamic Extremism’.
The union of these two men has shifted allegiances and raised questions of effectiveness and loyalty amongst associates of both groups. Along with Robinson another dozen senior EDL leaders have left the organization as a new strategy to work with moderate Muslims is revealed along with a repudiation of the Nazi elements in the EDL.
What’s left of the EDL, about 30,000 members without a core leadership structure, is divided on Robinson’s actions. Those opposed have made no secret of their disgust with Robinson with terms like ‘traitor’ being openly banded about on the internet.
The race-based anti-immigration British National Party, led by Nick Griffin, has wasted no time joining the chorus of catcalls against the former EDL leader with Griffin openly courting the organizations members and criticizing Robinson for promoting multi-culturalism.
Meanwhile Nawaz and his new found partner are facing tough questions about how effective Quilliam can be. The think-tank leader points to his de-radicalization in Egyptian prison being a result of the constant debate that took place amongst fellow prisoners of all ideological stripes. He believes that engaging in debate and education is key to preventing young Muslims from becoming radicalized in the first place.
However Quilliam has few friends except amongst mainstream politicians in Westminster. Radicals think they are not true to the Quran, moderate Muslim’s see the government influence of white politicians and become distrustful, anti-Islamist campaigners see an organization of debate that has little effectiveness; while the real Nazis won’t trust any solutions from non-whites and non-Christians.
Quilliam needs money and currently operates in large part on government grants. However its continuance depends on establishing independent funding. That money will most likely only come from other Muslim sources and they don’t give to moderates who collude with infidels, at least not as long as anyone else knows about it.
But Nawaz has won Robinson over for now, someone with drive and determination along with important name ID. Robinson’s presence will at least get an audience from white British campaigners. Add in that Nawaz is planning to run as a Liberal-Democrat along with Robinson’s previous willingness to co-operate with the UK Independence Party and some working coalitions may be possible.
Said Robinson after joining with Nawaz: “I have been considering this move for a long time. Whilst I want to lead a revolution against Islamist ideology, I don’t want to lead a revolution against Muslims. I believe that the revolution needs to come from within the Islamic community and they need to stand up.”
The new partnership has noble aims but success on-mass seems to be a long-shot.
The new partnership has noble aims but success on-mass seems to be a long-shot. The ability of Nawaz and Robinson to work together may be the same. Ultimately Nawaz is still a Muslim, and will try to persuade Robinson that, as Paul Austin Murphy puts it in The American Thinker, “Islam itself has absolutely nothing at all to do with Islamism and Islamic terrorism; let alone with Muslim sexual grooming and increasing sharia law in the UK.” The reality though is, as Murphy concludes “this is almost equivalent to saying that Hitler's National Socialism had nothing at all to do with the Second World War and the Holocaust.” Ultimately Robinson may also reach this conclusion.
In an interview on BBC Three-Counties radio on October 9th The Chair of the Islamic Centre in Luton underscores that gays would be killed "in an ideal Islamic state", but that such a thing would only happen in Britain if the people welcomed it. Robinson leaps back on him on him with “gays would be afraid to be gay” as he will always continue to criticize the tenets of Islam, which Muslims assert that most of them believe in to some extent.
Subsequently for Robinson to continue with Nawaz, Quilliam will have to accept that there are elements of basic Islamic theology that they believe, that are incompatible with westernized Christian based cultures. That admission would doom Quilliam’s ability to foster young Muslim outreach.
And while Robinson's approach in teaming with Quilliam may get the counter-jihad message out in the mainstream more effectively than his demonstrations did; he may also demonstrate by default that such an organization while operating as moderate still harbours beliefs unacceptable to the British mainstream.
The trump card has to be that evil must be opposed. While it is prudent to attempt the strategies of Quilliam, it cannot be done at the expense of opposition to the evil that exists in Islamist theology. The breaking point will come when Nawaz has to admit that or when Robinson removes the teeth from his ideology.
