Interview With Tommy Robinson, Discusses His Move Away From the EDL, and His New Relationship With Quilliam

The two top leaders of the English Defence League have left the organization to join the Quilliam Foundation, a mainstream NGO that fights “extremism” in all its forms. Among other actions, Quilliam takes great pains to prevent the stigmatization of Muslims by “Islamophobes”.

Ever since Tommy was released early from prison last winter, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and now it has. It seemed obvious back then that attempts would be made to “turn” him while he was in solitary confinement, offering him both carrots and sticks to cease his anti-Shariah advocacy as the head of the EDL.

The first carrot was his early release. That was followed by a series of increasingly unpleasant sticks — arrest after arrest after arrest. Later this month he is facing trial for one of the Woolwich-related arrests. Presumably the judicial authorities had a quiet word with him about how long he would spend behind bars this time. He may have been facing the prospect of only being able to see his kids once a week through that glass wall, while they grew up without him. He might have seen his family forced into destitution, ostracism, and humiliation.

Then along came the Quilliam carrot.