Tommy Robinson and Maajid Nawaz: Sleeping with the Enemy
By Spooner & Stubbs
“What winds me up, is that people who work in these organisations like Quilliam — because they’re from a different class to me, because they wear a tie — they say exactly the same as me. But because I’m working class, I’m frowned upon…for saying exactly the same” — Tommy Robinson, 2017.
With today’s new dawn comes the one day of the year marked out for romance, lovers and relationships. Candlelight dinners, flower deliveries and anxious waits for the postman are the order of the day. However, not all relationships are overt — or even romantic. Sometimes, suspicious eyes peer out smudged windows in cheap hotels. Tommy Robinson is akin to the toxic ex in Maajid Nawaz’s phone book that he can’t quite let go of. Their past relationship was certainly symbiotic. You might argue that both owe each other a debt of gratitude for their continued pseudo-relevance. In 2013, both Quilliam and Robinson were facing financial crises. Robinson, a fringe extremist, was going to prison a disgraced fraudster and his thuggish rabble the EDL (English Defence League) were dying while Quilliam had lost both Government funding and their last scraps of credibility within the Muslim community. Both seemingly washed up and rudderless.
It was against this backdrop that our erstwhile ‘radicals’ — both in desperate need of the media spotlight — hatched a PR stunt: a “high-stakes gamble” that would project the illusion of Robinson as ‘reformed’ and Quilliam as his saviours.
It was to echo similar “gambles” from Quilliam going back as far as 2011.
2011
A Sign of Things to Come
Often overlooked is the fact that Robinson wasn’t the first high profile EDL member whose ‘conversion’ Quilliam tried to spin for their own PR purposes. Back in 2011, when the ‘counter-extremism’ organisation was reaching the end of it’s shelf life with the Cameron government and their funding all but dried up, a decision was seemingly made to push the Quilliam brand by associating more publicly with ‘former’ extremists.
In July 2011, Quilliam announced a “roundtable event”, advertising that:
“For the first time ever, Quilliam is able to bring together former senior members of the EDL who have renounced the group and are willing to speak out against it publicly and to answer questions about the organisation and their time inside it.”
Quilliam announced that two high profile former EDL members, Harry Burns and Leighton Evans were to join them in for this showcase in renouncing extremism. The venture never got further than this announcement though, as both special guests pulled out of the event, with Evans declaring:
“I refused to go along with what the quilliam wanted me to do which was renounce the EDL. I won’t do that and it was never on the agenda in my email exchanges with Ghaffar Hussain. He said I’d be asked why I joined, what I did, why I left and what I think now. He then released that load of old bollocks which i was never party to.”
2013
The Mysterious Case of the Pakistani Dairy Farms
In September 2013, just a fortnight before the now infamous press conference in which Robinson announced he was leaving the EDL, Quilliam received $75,000 from the far-right, ultra-Conservative and anti-LGBT Bradley Foundation. The Bradley Foundation has been identified as central wealthy kingmakers in the ”Islamophobia Network”, providing over $6.5 million to organisations run by the likes of notorious anti-Islam campaigners Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. Notably, Geller and Spencer appealed for and donated their own organisation’s money directly to Robinson’s cause in 2012, just one year prior to his ‘agreement’ with Quilliam.
Curiously, tax forms from the Bradley Foundation have shown that their donation to Quilliam was earmarked for “Project Tamkeen”. Yet after conducting our own research (including liaising with ex-Quilliam employees — none of whom had heard of it), there doesn’t appear any public record of Quilliam’s involvement with any ‘Project Tamkeen’, nor is it never mentioned in any of their now public requests for government funding. Bizarrely, Project Tamkeen actually appears to be a dairy farming initiative run by the Pakistani organisation ‘Jassar Farms’, designed “to help poor dairy farmers with world class dairy genetics”.
Was Quilliam, the self-anointed “world’s first counter-extremism organisation” really taking funding from a US anti-Islam organisation in order to further its dairy farming aspirations in Pakistan? Only a fortnight before they teamed up with the leader of the EDL? Or could the money Quilliam received for “Project Tamkeen” have been earmarked instead for Robinson’s upcoming PR stunt? Could a deal have been struck between Bradley and Quilliam to facilitate the mainstreaming of Robinson and his views in exchange for much needed funding?
Roses are red, violets are blue , you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours too
“I had to fly in like Superman and save the day and convince Tommy to leave the EDL. True story, it happened.” — Maajid Nawaz
Regardless of whether the Bradley Foundation’s money played a direct role or not, Robinson’s EDL departure went ahead a fortnight after their payment to Quilliam. This turn of events saw Nawaz and Robinson in their element, suited and booted while boasting to the obliging media about how important this moment was for everyone involved. Much has been made of Quilliam’s involvement in Robinson’s departure from the EDL. Robinson has since confirmed that his EDL emancipation was in fact staged — nothing more than another pantomime for these notorious media manipulators to act out. Yet, like an actor left on stage performing after his audience has long gone, Nawaz continues to insist that Robinson’s departure was facilitated by Quilliam in the best of faith.
Quilliam’s President, Haras Rafiq (who has also worked with another Bradley-funded, far-right think tank, the Middle East Forum) would later go on to declare to the Home Affairs Select Committee that they “never had any formal business relationship with Tommy Robinson”. Interestingly, although the Quilliam chief and former EDL man ostensibly disagree on this matter, Nawaz has yet to refute any of Robinson’s specific claims about their ‘agreement’:
- Robinson claims he was on the books at Quilliam and received about £8,000 over six months. Despite Quilliam initially denying Robinson was being paid for anything, Nawaz has since informed his critics that, although Quilliam didn’t pay Robinson for leaving the EDL per sè, Quilliam did cover the expenses incurred during Tommy’s outreach work with the ‘counter-extremists’. The value of these expenses has never been clarified.
- Robinson states that he knew he was going to prison and, because his bank accounts and assets had been frozen due to his mortgage fraud charges, had requested his money was paid into his wife’s account to keep her afloat during his stint inside. Nawaz also confirms this.
- Robinson confirms it was a “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” agreement. Robinson got paid. Quilliam’s website was “hammered” and the foundation received huge amounts of national media attention — fair to say both backs were sufficiently scratched.
Having now gone back on Quilliam’s claims that Robinson had taken the “first step” on the path of deradicalisation, Nawaz stills hangs his hat on the fact that Quilliam “facilitated his departure” from the EDL. Yet as Robinson said, he was aware his impending spell in prison was to be followed up with a court order stopping him from associating with the EDL anyway. Additionally, the EDL was already splintering and their attempts to reignite, regroup and heal their divisions had proven unsuccessful. It’s also common knowledge that Robinson had long been searching for a path out of street hooliganism and into more ‘respectable’ far-right politics. In this context, Robinson’s claims that he had already made his decision to leave when he approached Quilliam start to look all the more plausible.
From Nawaz’s very public attempts to locate his alleged teenage ‘saviour’ or cuddle bullied refugee school children to Robinson’s trademark of doxxing and hounding his critics for his Youtube fanbase, both men have a penchant for audacious publicity stunts. To claim Robinson’s EDL departure was anything other than that is an insult to the intelligence of all who have bothered to pay attention. As Robinson would later publicly state to Nawaz:
“I left the EDL for the benefit of you and the benefit of me. That’s what we agreed. So yeah, we best not talk about what we agreed.”
Underscoring Quilliam’s apparent lack of sincerity regarding Robinson’s departure, in the following days Nawaz wasted no time in attempting to cash in on their reignited popularity. The foundation’s chairman immediately sent out multiple emails to the Department for Communities and Local Government, requesting funding for Robinson’s “transition” and speaking of potential projects for more (more!) EDL members to be pulled “into the mainstream”. The Guardian article (pictured above) confirms that this appeal for government funds was always part of the plan:
“Nawaz said he would work to introduce Robinson to his own contacts in government and the Home Office in an attempt to procure government funding”
Many observed that over the course of Robinson’s brief stint with Quilliam, he never renounced his ideas. Nawaz does not disagree, but simply argues that he “never said he’d changed”(despite his 2014 appeal for Robinson to be better safeguarded in prison due to him being attacked for what Nawaz described as his “former views”).
Our sources have since confirmed that police had intelligence to suggest that Robinson was affiliating with EDL members again as early as January 2014. The pair’s questionable behaviour since has often left the public none the wiser as to whose views were actually being influenced by whom. Eleven days after Robinson’s resignation, in true ‘EDL’ style, he and Nawaz both took to Twitter, spreading fake news about ‘Muslim only’ discounts for a Premier League football match:
2015
The Sound of Silence
Following Robinson’s eventual release from prison, he was involved in a major scandal: recording his secret conversations with Afzal Amin, the prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for Dudley North in the upcoming general election. Amin had schemed to persuade the EDL to announce an inflammatory march against a proposed “mega-mosque” in Dudley North. A march that would then be ‘called off’, with Amin taking credit for defusing the situation — winning over voters, and police, in his campaign’s marginal seat.
In return for Robinson rallying the EDL (who he’d supposedly left, remember?) into action, Amin promised he’d be the EDL’s “unshakeable ally” who’d facilitate their extreme views into the mainstream if elected. Robinson’s recordings also exposed Amin as wanting EDL members to be paid to canvass on his behalf in Dudley — in breach of election laws. Robinson went to the press with his recordings and Amin was subsequently suspended, eventually resigning from politics.
Robinson secured immense media attention over this scandal, yet for once Nawaz steered well clear, rather than attempting to piggyback on to Robinson’s efforts. The reasons for this are potentially three-fold. Firstly, any public conversation around this incident may have forced Nawaz to acknowledge the fact that Robinson was at the very least, still working exrtemely closely with the EDL (if not actually running it, as suggested by Amin). Secondly, Afzal Amin was someone who the Quilliam head had publicly promoted and acknoweledged as an “old university buddy”. Finally, this was all a bit too close to home for Nawaz, especially after Amin admitted that he had first met Robinson at a Quilliam event:
“There are, however, a few things that need to be clarified. I first met Tommy Robinson at a 20-person roundtable in London organised by the Quilliam Foundation. Since his release from prison for mortgage fraud, I have been pursued by Robinson who remains, in my view, the actual leader of the EDL”
Former blog site Mushy Peas not only accused Nawaz of facilitating the secret meetings between Amin and Robinson, but also questioned whether Amin’s financial backer was also behind Nawaz’s own political campaign. Although Nawaz denied the accusations, he never went as far as to condemn his old mates, offering little more than overwhelming silence on the matter.
2017
Can’t Live With ‘em…
Fast forward to 2017 and Robinson and Quilliam are — yet again — in dire need of publicity. On the 9th of April, Robinson rings in to Nawaz’s live LBC show under the alias of ‘Paul’. During this ten minute interaction, there is clearly very little disagreement between the two. Nethertheless, Quilliam and LBC both promote the far-right idol’s “surprise” appearance, promoting it as a hostile phone call from Robinson and all involved bask in the media attention. It’s worth noting here that Nawaz has been previously been accused of staging planned phone-ins during his shows.
Ebner and Out
Curiously, only three weeks following Nawaz and Robinson’s on air reunion, Quilliam staff member Julia Ebner writes a Guardian piece implying Robinson is leading a “white supremacist” movement. Robinson then repays the favour, taking aim at Quilliam in another crazed publicity stunt by marching upon their offices with his camera crew, aggressively demanding answers about Ebner’s article. It seems doubtful that Nawaz had prior knoweldge of his plans, since Robinson clearly appears to have shaken and upset Quilliam staff. Still, the huge publicity this garnered from this stunt was undoubtedly a good thing for both parties — Quilliam’s website even “crashed due to a surge” of traffic. Quilliam and Robinson were again the talk of the town, sending tongues wagging on social media. Nawaz initially came out defending his employee Ebner, labelling Robinson a “snowflake” whose antics were an act of “political extremism”.
Yet Quilliam didn’t stand by Ebner and her article for long. Just days later, both Rafiq and Robinson enjoyed further national attention with a ten minute segment on the BBC’s Daily and Sunday Politics. What was noticeable here was, in direct contrast to Nawaz’s fighting Twitter talk, Rafiq capitulated — all but apologising to Robinson and throwing Ebner under the bus in the process:
“The Quilliam position is not that Tommy Robinson is a white supremacist…an article was written by somebody, I wasn’t aware of it…the process needs to be changed that I vet everything…the article was not meant to say that Tommy was a white supremacist, it could have been worded better, absolutely…I think it should have been worded differently”
Rafiq went on to offer Robinson an olive branch, asking “Do you want it sorted?…Right well then we’ll sort it”.
And sort it they did. Less than a month following her article, Ebner was gone. Insiders at Quilliam suggest that Ebner’s dismissal was a direct result of the subsequent meeting that took place between Robinson and the ‘counter-extremists’. Here it is also worth noting that is wasn’t just Robinson who was unhappy at Ebner’s Guardian piece: re-enter Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.
In Ebner’s article, as well as insinuating that Robinson’s fans were white supremacists, she labelled Geller and Spencer ‘alt-right leaders’. In a response that may have been orchestrated with Robinson, Geller and Spencer joined him in attacking Quilliam and Nawaz on social media about the article. Again, both Spencer and Geller have worked with Robinson at various times over the past decade as well as facilitating funding for him through their far-right organisations. Did Geller and Spencer help influence Quilliam’s meetings with Tommy in the wake of the fallout from Ebner’s article? Was pressure also coming from US far-right leaders, leaders of organisations linked to Quilliam’s donors? Or was Ebner deemed a worthy sacrifice simply to appease Robinson himself?
Whether Ebner was sacked, pushed or just moved on remains unknown. Ebner was swiftly (and quietly) picked up by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD): a London-based think tank that has received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Quilliam USA’s landlords, the Generation Next Foundation. Funnily enough, not only is Quilliam’s Californian branch physically located within the Generation Next office building, but their ‘principal operating officer’, Michael Davidson, is also the President of Generation Next. No doubt these networks may have helped ensure a swift back door exit to ISD was facilitated as smoothly as possible for Ebner.
2018
Grooming the Next Generation
When Robinson declared that Quilliam “say exactly the same things” as he does, it may have been dismissed as typical PR spin. However, when it comes to their position on ‘grooming gangs’, Robinson’s assertion appears to hold some truth. Both Nawaz and the man he just loves to hate can be found spreading the same far-right tropes about the “Muslim rape gang” epidemic. This is no coincidence.
From the decline of ISIS to the rise of the far right, the existential “Islamist threat’ is nowhere near as lucrative as it once was for ‘counter extremism’ organisations. Those close to core team have hinted that Quilliam is on financial life support, being drip-fed by Nawaz’s US backers. Adopting the ‘Muslim grooming gang’ narrative enables Quilliam to link sexual abuse to Islamic extremism, offering them a much needed business opportunity whilst ideologically appeasing their neoconservative funders — a potentially win/win situation. Ironically, in doing so they boost far-right organisations and personalities such as Robinson, legitimising and fueling their extremist, xenophobic agenda.
Returning to the question of who exactly was supposed to be mentoring who throughout their fateful coalition in 2013/14, the ‘Muslim sex gang’ narrative is something that Quilliam (and Nawaz in particular) co-opted from Robinson, who’d been pushing these race-baiting tropes since back during in his EDL glory days. This topic is arguably the clearest example of a far-right view that Quilliam have done their darndest to mainstream.
By self-publishing junk science on the topic in the form of their race-baiting Understanding Grooming Gangs report, Quilliam have armed far-right demagogues like Robinson and their followers with the vital ammunition they yearn for in their battle to legitimise this flawed and dangerous narrative. Notably, the results obtained by Quilliam that produced their now infamous ‘84%’ figure, corresponded suspiciously to those recorded by author, Peter Mcloughlin, in his book Easy Meat. That Mcloughlin would later team up with Robinson to author the “Infantile, hateful and nonsensical” Mohammed’s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam comes as little surprise.
Consciously or not, when it comes to ‘grooming gangs’, it is apparent that Robinson and Nawaz have again found themselves in a “I scratch your back and you scratch mine” situation. Robinson has repeatedly quoted Quilliam’s ‘research’ to lubricate his anti-Muslim rhetoric. On the flip side, Nawaz has often leapt to the defence of Robinson’s preaching about ‘grooming gangs’ on social media, reinforcing the media magnet’s claims whilst poaching a corner of his spotlight. The ‘Muslim grooming threat’ has enabled the pair to get back to doing what they do best — feeding off the publicity each other engineers.
This happy symbiosis was obvious throughout 2018 when Robinson’s antics were again a regular feature in the national media. ‘Tommy’ orchestrated his own public outrage by being arrested for breaching reporting restrictions during a ‘grooming gang’ trial in Leeds on the 25th of May. He did so by live-streaming a talk he gave for more than an hour about “jihad rape gangs” on the steps of the courthouse while the jury was still deliberating. One day later, Nawaz posted a Twitter thread explaining how Tommy was wrong to do so despite having “legitimate grievances”: unsurprisingly, then, his criticism of Robinson’s behavior centered on his tactics, not his morals or his claims. Advertently or not, this ‘critical’ thread, enhanced Robinson’s brand by rehashing the same, far-right talking points (“Muslim men against teenage white girls”, “establishment’s toxic PC culture”) and gained thousands of retweets for the ‘liberal’ exhibitionist.
One month later, just like in 2014, Nawaz again made a public plea to the Justice Secretary to help prevent alleged “racial” attacks on the then imprisoned Robinson. Shortly after on the 23rd of October, Robinson was back in court, succeeding in his appeal to have the case delayed and referred to the Attorney General. He then gave a speech to his adoring fans outside the courthouse, reading out his defence team’s official response to the allegations. Unsurprisingly, a significant part of this defence was that when supposedly breached reporting restrictions, he was merely quoting the “facts” as presented in Quilliam’s ‘grooming gangs’ report. Robinson proudly declared:
“The second allegation is that stating that those of the same ethnicity and religion as the defendants were disproportionately likely to commit the crimes for which the defendants were being tried could prejudice the trial.This statement is factually correct. The Quilliam foundation who are a Muslim run anti-extremism think tank have produced a research paper looking at convictions of this type 1 street grooming from 2005–2017. This is in the defence bundle. They found that 84% of all convictions were south Asian with the significant majority of those being Pakistani Muslim. All of these victims were white children….I merely stated factual insight into the ethnicity and religious make up of perpetrators of these types of crimes. I repeated publicly available research papers from the Quilliam Organisation”
Quilliam’s report had come to Tommy’s rescue. Nawaz immediately promoted Robinson’s speech and provided a copy of it (in full) to his 220,000 odd Twitter followers, stating that his “belief in fairness” had compelled him to air Tommy’s “legitimate grievances”. The fact that Quilliam’s report was quoted in Robinson’s speech was of course, a coincidental bonus for an organisation undoubtedly aware of the extra attention that they could expect from such high profile stunts with Robinson. Indeed, the very same day as Robinson’s speech, Quilliam removed the £10 paywall from their ‘Grooming Gang’ report, allowing new visitors to their site to read it for free.
Just over a month later, both men wasted no time in attempting to hijack the media attention surrounding the racist bullying of Syrian refugee schoolboy ‘Jamal’. Whilst Robinson was busy spreading false claims to incite far right, Nawaz’s more subtle approach saw him attempt to exploit Jamal’s story for his own LBC ratings. Nawaz then immediately latched on to the public outrage at Robinson’s behaviour, managing a predictably muffled critique (in contrast to his simplified, dogmatic attacks on what he labels the “far-left”, Nawaz makes sure to balance his criticism when discussing Robinson — whether it’s by citing “legitimiate grievances”, defending him against “fake news” or calling out the “double standards” from those attacking the former EDL man).
Two Peas, One Pod
Unsurprisingly, Nawaz and Robinson’s now infamous “I use you, you use me” formula appears to simmer on, fuelled by common interests and exploited by either one whenever the need arises.
It is often said that opposites attract; but are Maajid and Tommy truly opposites? Both soak themselves in victimhood, have the financial backing of vested interests from abroad, both have traded off their backgrounds as former extremists and both have taken the path of least resistance to carve out careers through giving the appearance of offering solutions and in doing so, seem to be indifferent to the consequences.
More specifically, those such as researcher and author Arun Kundnani, had foreseen their 2013 ‘arrangement’ because of their seemingly mutual interest in scapegoating UK Muslims:
Like Quilliam, the EDL also took its mission statement from the Prevent narrative. It held Islamist extremism to be a widespread problem in British Muslim communities that required surveillance, exposure and, ultimately, violence. Thus, the recent alliance between the EDL’s Tommy Robinson and Quilliam is fitting. They have long shared the same politics; now that complicity has been formalised
Under the microscope, Nawaz and Robinson “have more in common” than appears to the naked eye. It could be seen as a difference of type and not of kind, a variation in style and not of substance. Often those targetted by right-wing extremists are considered ‘traitors’ for their commitment to diversity and plurality. Its easy to imagine them branded by Breivik as “cultural Marxists”, by Robinson as “traitors” or as “regressive leftists” by Nawaz, yet they are all terms for the same thing. Maajid Nawaz punches left from the centre. Tommy Robinson punches left from the right.
In 2018, Quilliam’s Director of Policy, David Toube described Robinson as:
“a drifter, who is chaotic and untrustworthy…He’s a guy who’s seen the main chance and gone for it.”
Ironically, to many, Toube could just have easily been describing his own boss.
