I could have "ended my days" in a great number of places. There is actually a very interesting and diverse environment here but although my home is here I still travel a lot and will soon be back in Asia for a while.

I have no interest at all in where Robinson comes from. It is what he says, how he says it and the impact his style of divisive rabble rousing rhetoric has on those with a racist predilection which concerns me.

Odd that you are so concerned about Robinson but have never posted about your concern about Islamists preaching hate against your own people for example.

It's that imbalance which makes me very suspicious of people like yourself. You seem more preoccupied with virtue signaling and ideological top trumps than what is really happening in the world.
Has any follower of Tommy Robinson blown up hundreds of people with suicide vests recently?

Robinson is just the whipping boy for the yell racist brigade of which you are one. What he is or isn't is not really that important. You are not interested in whether there is any validity in his stance or not.

If you really looked you would find plenty of condemnation of terrorism from me and my support for rigorous action to deal with it. That includes anyone speaking out in support of, or encouraging those who would commit such crimes.

What I don't, and will not do, is condemn anyone peace loving just because of their religious beliefs. It is the divisive nature of wanting to put everyone who happens to have been born a Muslim into the same box as those who are extremists.

Such an attitude is no better than condemning every Christian just because the IRA sprang from Roman Catholic roots.

It is that stance that I object to. Remove the religious connections and condemn the criminals, whatever their background, and nothing is wrong. Mention religion and it is.

So you agree he's racist then?

If you really looked you would find plenty of condemnation of terrorism from me and my support for rigorous action to deal with it. That includes anyone speaking out in support of, or encouraging those who would commit such crimes.

What I don't, and will not do, is condemn anyone peace loving just because of their religious beliefs. It is the divisive nature of wanting to put everyone who happens to have been born a Muslim into the same box as those who are extremists.

Such an attitude is no better than condemning every Christian just because the IRA sprang from Roman Catholic roots.

It is that stance that I object to. Remove the religious connections and condemn the criminals, whatever their background, and nothing is wrong. Mention religion and it is.

Have you got a link to a particular racist view that you don't like from tommy robinson?

From the article

"he has been filmed making remarks including “Somalis are backward barbarians”, calling British Muslims “enemy combatants who want to kill you, maim you and destroy you”, and claiming refugees are “raping their way through the country”.

We actually agree on this.

I think the problem here is that we don't really experience, for example, Christian extremism of the kind that threatens us. However. we do experience Islamic extremism here in Britain and worldwide.
Of course, it is illogical to blame every Muslim for the deeds of extremists but the painful truth is that the existence of these people among us leads to the immediate danger just in the same way that the clash of Catholic and Protestant lead to the IRA bombings. At least they had a cause that was practical and not purely ideological.

It's obvious that when one group in society produces extremists that threaten life and lifestyle then that group as a whole will be treated with suspicion and some resentment. It is purely about self-preservation.

To start yelling racist is anti intellectual. It shows no understanding of the natural human desire to protect and feel safe from perceived danger.

All Irish Catholics were not in the IRA but back in the dark times, an Irish accent in England was reason enough for suspicion. Such an attitude was born from self preservation and the knowledge that extremist had sympathisers who would never deliver a bomb themselves but probably knew someone who might.

It had nothing to do with 'racism' then and it doesn't now. I am partly Irish but I was no different back then.

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (26 Apr 2019 12.36pm)

I could have "ended my days" in a great number of places. There is actually a very interesting and diverse environment here but although my home is here I still travel a lot and will soon be back in Asia for a while.

It's always nice to find some agreement among the thorns of disagreement!

There is much that I too can agree with in your post. My concern though is not so much about the terminology as the effects. Understanding why some people feel uncomfortable only means we need to find ways to reassure them. Using rabble rousing rhetoric is not going to do that. It is likely to incite the already uncomfortable to become more so, and raise the possibility of direct confrontation with others who are actually no threat and cause further divisions. This is why I oppose Robinson and those who flock to his banner.