RSN Fundraising Banner
FB Share
Email This Page
add comment

writing for godot

Tommy Robinson quits English Defense League and?

Print
Written by Dr Mohammed Ilyas   
Tuesday, 22 October 2013 22:25


Tommy Robinson has quit the EDL citing that he can no longer control its ‘more extreme’ members. This suggests that the group has ‘moderate and extreme members’ who happen to share the same hateful ideology. Some media pundits, government officials and lay people may consider this as the ‘beginning of the end of the EDL’. It is more likely the beginning of something new, an astute and nuanced approach to ‘Muslim hate’.

The Future for Tommy

Nevertheless, Tommy leaving the EDL begs two questions –one, what will Tommy do next and two, what will happen to the EDL. The first question is simple to answer because it is a ‘career move’ from -‘extremism’ to becoming an ‘expert on extremism’. In Tommy changing careers he is following a well-trodden path. A path that was taken by Majid Nawaz and Ed Husian, who left Hizb ut Tahir in 2007, and went on to set up the Quilliam Foundation.

Like Majid’s and ED’s departure from Hizb ut Tahir, Tommy’s exit from the EDL has been carefully crafted and media managed –according to some media reports it has been 18 months in the making, with some prominent Muslims and Muslim organizations involved. The most likely immediate to medium term future for Tommy will be a coming out session with Jeremy Paxman on News Night, where he will say some nasty things about his former colleagues, he will say some nice things about Muslims, he will receive death threats from EDL members, he may get attacked by EDL members, he may even go into hiding for a while. This will be culminate in Tommy going on a world tour, where he will give talks on extremism, and be interviewed by international media. Along the way he will make lots of money and become a political pundit, as well as being considered as an expert on extremism and community cohesion.

Like other ex-extremists Tommy will have a few documentaries made about him and his life in the EDL, he will write a book about why he left the EDL, he will either set up or join an existing ‘moderate anti-Muslim group’. The media will ask Tommy to take part in debates on extremism and multiculturalism, and he will become a leading adviser to the government on how to tackle extremism and promote community cohesion. He may even become a senior research fellow at some international institution. As Mathew Goodwin, an expert on right-wing extremism argues –

Disengaging somebody from extremist activity is easier than the more complex process of overhauling one's values and outlook. This helps explain why so many ex-terrorists and ex-extremists never manage the transition. Instead, they hurl themselves to the other side of the spectrum, becoming just as fanatically obsessed with the promotion of democracy, fighting their former extremist brethren – or selling their latest book.


The future for the EDL

On the question of where the EDL will go next, well this is a no-brainer because like all extremist groups, the organizational structures and leaders are not that important once a group establishes an audience. Once these discourses are in the public domain, they take a life of their own and can compel individuals to engage in violence. The EDL has always had a decentralized structure, with all its divisions operating independently within their respective regions and adhering to a carefully developed logic where Islam and Muslim are equated with everything that is inhumane. It is evidenced that this logic has been successfully deployed by the EDL in driving a wedge between the Muslim and non-Muslim white community.

Even if the EDL ends up on the scrap heap, it does not mean that it has failed in its mission. On the contrary the EDL has succeeded in its mission. The EDL has being able to engender the Muslim community as a ‘suspect and problem community’, such that negative views about Muslims have become the ‘normalized’ and part of the social fabric, like racism. This ‘normalization’ has led some Muslims feeling that Muslims and their faith are on ‘trial’. The ‘normalization of hate’ fostered by the EDL has gained much credibility because it is endorsed and propagated by some politicians, as well as right wing media and media pundits.

In the future British Muslims can look forward to international anti-Islam groups and anti-Muslim policies being proposed by politicians. Subsequent British governments are likely to follow their European counterparts in silencing Muslims because they will consider them as a group that needs to be controlled and monitored.
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
Email This Page

 

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

RSNRSN