Tommy Robinson’s Plan to Exploit Religious Groups for Anti-Islam Campaign Exposed
The UK-based far-right activist Tommy Robinson intended to use Sikhs, Jews and Hindus in Britain to whip up anger against Islam in the country, as per the highlights of the sting operation leaked to the i website. The plan he developed called “UK Against Hate” was to coordinate counter-protests in support of Israel against pro-Palestine demonstrators and seek support from different religious and ethnic groups while using their anti-Muslim sentiments to mobilise the nation against Palestine.
According to that plan, more right-wing activists and football fans were planned to be assembled for more protests across the country. It was intended that Robinson use his hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple social media platforms to disseminate his message and ally himself with other alt-right personalities online, potentially reaching millions. He made it a point not directly to talk about Muslims but interested them through topics such as terrorism and terms like ‘jihad’.
Presumably, to contribute to creating the image of huge support, which was lacking at that moment, Robinson’s media team was ordered to use non-white people in the advertisements. The rationale for this strategy was to build up an image of a great teaming of people against Britain’s Muslims. When asked for his comment, Robinson referred to the report as baseless while asserting that his movement seeks to ‘unify the UK and the entire world against jihad. ’
According to the media, Robinson’s meetings paved the way for a “patriotic” rally in London earlier this summer, which happened days before the far-right riots erupted all over the UK in the wake of the brutal murder of 3 girls in Southport. After the killings, Robinson took to social media to mislead his followers regarding the identity of the attacker, blaming migrants for many social evils and calling for a stop to the Refugee boats to cross to Britain.
Further, Robinson and other such right-wing personalities helped spread these fictions, leading to riots against mosques, asylum centres, as well as hotels which provided shelter to immigrants. These riots led to more than 1000 cases of arrests and many criminal cases were filed against the students.
Savanta’s poll from earlier this month shows that key instigators of the violence are identified as Robinson and a British nationalist Nigel Farage by most Britons. This survey revealed that 54% said Robinson was to blame for the riots, while 51% blamed Farage, whose fake news they rightly accused him of spreading even though he later apologised. Nonetheless, after December 2010 accusations of fascist links, Farage dissociated himself from the trouble-makers while supporting non-violent protest and speculating that two-tier policing is to blame for further disorder.
Of the former users, 44 per cent said electric car and rocket Tesla owner Elon Musk also contributed to pushing far-right narratives on X (formerly Twitter). But despite complaints about biased policing, 64% of respondents felt that the police managed riots effectively.
Robinson’s actions have elicited controversy as they pose the risks associated with fake news, hate speech and walking around inciting violence and hostility among the people. His plans were exposed as a wake-up call of continued struggles in other cases of countering hatred and extremism in the age of social media.
