Pamela Geller: Tommy Robinson's "Association With The Quilliam Foundation Is Problematic In The Extreme"

From Pamela Geller:

This is Muslim Outreach? Tommy Robinson approaches Quilliam in earnest, puts his life on the line, becomes a pariah (and rightly so) and that's how they declare it? Decapitation sounds like jihad, not reformation. 

Quilliam claimed they have “facilitated the decapitation of the EDL” and called on all remaining members to “follow in his footsteps”. 

As I noted in my initial declaration of support for Tommy's leaving the EDL, there were many problematic elements within the EDL: antisemites, neo-Nazis, etc. There are also many patriotic lovers of freedom, and I hope they will be able to continue their struggle for human rights and the defense of England against Sharia and Islamization. While we supported Tommy's distancing himself from the unsavory forces that were infiltrating the EDL, his association with the Quilliam Foundation is problematic in the extreme.

GO READ THE WHOLE THING.

Here Pamela expresses concern that Tommy Robinson may be in over his head:

A deceptive group like this will be able to deceive Tommy Robinson, who is full of courage and committed to human rights is not well-versed in Islamic teaching, into thinking that Islam is a Religion of Peace and the jihadis are just a tiny minority of "extremists" -- a word Tommy has been using a lot over the last few days.

It appears Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer must have been blindsided by Tommy Robinson's initial announcement. 

I am guessing he could not alert them of his plans, for fear that international telephone communications would have been tracked by the government.

This would indicate to me that Tommy has either,

1) gone full Dhimmi (which I doubt)

or 

2) has plans for how to handle himself within the belly of the beast.

If his plan was simply to leave EDL and join up with an organization of which he could be proud, he would have felt comfortable explaining the situation to Pamela and Robert over international telephone lines.

I trusted Pamela and Robert's initial support of Tommy Robinson's decision. The reason I trusted it is because despite my disagreements with them on a few issues over the years, I do respect them and believe they are intelligent and sincere people.

However, they appear to be a dollar short and a day late in this whole fiasco.

Very sad.

One wonders who one can trust in such an environment. 

Best to take responsibility for ones own self, and tell the truth as clearly as possible.

 As Aragorn said, in Lord of the Rings, 

"We must do without hope...at least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves and weep no more. Come! We have a long road, and much to do."

UPDATE -

There is a commenter named Joe, at Pamela's thread. If what he says is true, it gives us some perspective on what has been going on behind the scenes in the EDL, and why Tommy Robinson may have decided to make this move:

Let's not fool ourselves. There have been Nazis at EDL demos. I've spoken to people from the EDL's Gay Division who REGULARLY have had death threats from overt Nazis at the demos. When Tommy was told of this he was aghast - that was why he made it loud and clear at the Birmingham demo that these Nazis are not welcome. He asked them: "why do you keep coming back when we tell you over and over you are not wanted." I was at the meeting in June or July when he was told of these death threats, and he was furious and frustrated and depressed all at the same time.
Without a doubt, these Nazis turn up because some of them are agents provacateurs of the UK government. Others turn up because for 4 years the media have refused to publicise any of EDL's attempts to make it clear that EDL does not want Nazis or racists. In 2009, Tommy went on BBC news with a group of black men from EDL and burned a swastika and denounced Nazis. From 2009 until last week, the British media never mentioned this event (even though the video of it is still found on the BBC Newsnight webpage). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8303786.stm A few days ago, this event was brought up on Channel4 News in Britain, only for the hostile, baracking presenter not to mention that in that video Tommy etc. burned a swastika. No, the presenter concentrated on the fact that Tommy wore a balaclava. He continued to address Tommy as if EDL was a racist organisation, not telling the viewers that half the men in that video were black.
I've seen EDL physically threaten Nazis who turned up to meetings. When such things leaked out (EDL did not report what they'd done), the media ignored it and the websites of the fascist Left said it never happened. There have been street battles in the centre of London between EDL and neo-nazis, with the neo-nazis being put in hospital. Again, a story ignored by all the media. Tommy has a criminal conviction for assaulting a Nazi - something that would have made him a legend among the fascist Left if Tommy had been in the UAF. And the media have had a sustained campaign of only showing angry white men on EDL demos. They will shoot video down a line of EDL supporters, and edit out any asians, blacks or gays in the line.
After 4 years of swimming upstream against the media and the lies from the fascist Left, it looks like he's had enough of it. He has encouraged asians, blacks, jews and gays to come to demos to speak on stage, to take leadership roles in EDL, but because of what the media have done, Tommy must feel he is putting the lives of these people in danger when he cannot remove the Nazis from EDL. I would not keep going back on EDL demos and identifying myself as jewish or gay if I was repeatedly getting death threats from Nazis on the demos.
If he is going to de-toxify his image and that of the movement around him, he clearly can't do it when the media will lie so blatantly.
Quilliam are not to be trusted, just as no muslim organisation is to be trusted. I might trust Tarek Fatah, but no other muslim. But in the British context, Quilliam are probably one of the least bad organisations. The British media constantly interview "moderate muslim leaders" whose organisations have directors who repeatedly state "gays must be killed".
You have to work with what is available. I hope that the publicity that Quilliam has got over this serves to show people how duplicitous they are. Their comment about beheading the EDL when the trial of Lee Rigby starts in a couple of weeks shows that everyone has good reason to regard their activities as stealth jihad.

Joe also wrote:

My suspicion is that in 12 months time, people will look back and say "that was a very clever move by Tommy Robinson in 2013".

LET'S HOPE SO.