Tommy Robinson, Islamophobia and the Problems of Heresy

Following on from Rednev's item about the growth of Islamophobia among young Britons, I think it worth turning to the recent resignation of Tommy Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) from the English Defence League (EDL). Having been categorised as anti-Muslim and a racist, Robinson has now announced his intention to work with Quilliam to break down extremism among Muslims. He expounded his opinions this morning, on the BBC TV programme, "Sunday Morning Live". Unsurprisingly, there has been a good deal of scepticism about Robinson's "conversion" to moderation, especially from anti-racist groups and some Muslim commentators. Others are prepared to give Mr Robinson the benefit of the doubt. I belong to the latter group, albeit with some caution. The EDL is in decline anyway, and Robinson might just be abandoning a sinking ship. If he is sincere, then he should watch his back - if the Neo-Nazis who have been agitating against Robinson's leadership actually take over the EDL, they will regard Robinson as a traitor (some already say he was an MI5 agent), and be out for revenge. Jihadi groups take a similar position towards people who leave their ranks.
And there lies the crux of the problem. The EDL, the far right and their Jihadi enemies need each other in order to justify their own extremist positions. As has been noted before, they resemble each other in a number of significant ways. Moving to a more moderate consensus is not acceptable to either side.

Tommy Robinson (and the rest of us) might like to start by asking why there is a growth in Muslim extremism in the first place. The argument that it is all because of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan is too simplistic - although it is undeniably a factor. Al-Qaeda existed before 9/11, and most of the hijackers were Saudis, not Afghans, Iraqis or Pakistanis. It is a mistake to regard Islamist terror attacks as retaliation for attacks on countries; all the terror groups say that they see the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as attacks on Islam itself. It is that, I believe, which is alienating some Muslims from our society, and causing their rejection of liberal democratic norms in politics and societal behaviour. Fundamentalist Islam, which Robinson and others detest, is a total lifestyle choice, involving cultural issues, not just politics and violence. Besides which, we should bear in mind that not all fundamentalist Muslims are terrorists, nor are all Muslims fundamentalists.
At this point, I must say that I have taught many Muslim children (still do teach!), worked with Muslim colleagues in my career, and never encountered the slightest hint of extremism. My experience of encountering Islam has been generally  positive. I have learned a lot from Muslim children about their faith, and been impressed at how articulate they can be when discussing their beliefs. As far as I'm concerned, never having met any extremists, I have no problems with the vast majority of Muslims.
However, Islam itself, I believe, has a problem organisationally. Not only is it divided into two main camps, Sunni and Shia, but it has no central controlling body. This makes it very difficult to rid itself of extremist groups. The Church of England has the General Synod; the Roman Catholic Church had the Inquisition; the Communist Party in the old Soviet Union had an all-powerful Central Committee. This meant that all these bodies could rid themselves of heretics and ideological deviationists (the two terms are interchangeable!). Islam has no central body to do this, and the Jihadis remain Muslims, tarnishing the name of the religion they profess to follow.
Besides this, the image of Islam is not helped by the fact that, of all the countries in the world where faith minorities and unbelievers are badly treated, the majority of such countries are Islamic states. I have discussed this in previous postings, researching the treatment of Atheists, Christians and Bahais around the world, and found that Islamic countries are the worst offenders. This varies, of course, from country to country. Egypt has a large Christian minority, and Turkey has a quite lenient attitude towards unbelievers. However, the picture is very different in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran. While Islamic countries practise intolerance towards minorities, groups such as the EDL, etc, will be able to portray Islam as a threat to our way of life. Nor does it help when some Muslims admit to this - see the picture above, or read some of the pronouncements of Jihadi hate preachers.
To return to Tommy Robinson, Esther Rantzen made the point this morning that, if we reject, with cynicism, extremists such as Mr Robinson who want to come in from the cold, we will only discourage others who seek to do the same. Let's hope that Tommy Robinson moderates his views and many others (EDL and Jihadis) follow him.