Bartholomew's Notes

Once again (alas), I am obliged to quote Pamela Geller:

[T]he night before he made his announcement, Tommy tried to contact me numerous times on Skype and by phone while I was busy with other matters[*]. It was clear that it was urgent. Finally, we spoke on the phone, and it was on that phone call that he told me that he would be resigning from the EDL the next day, and that the Quilliam Foundation was going to be at the press conference — but he made that a minor point…. . Then at the press conference, both he and Kevin Carroll were the showcases of a Quilliam victory dance. They looked eerily reminiscent of the American POW’s taken by enemy combatants and forced to say things they did not believe before cameras.

…Now he is the poster boy for the stealth jihad. It seems they have taught Tommy well. His deception to friends and colleagues mirrors the Islamic teachings of kitman (lie by omission) and taqiyya. So Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll are no longer on the SION board. 

That’s a change from her initial response to the press conference.

Geller’s repudiation will please Quilliam, who found Robinson’s continuing support for her and for her sidekick Robert Spencer to be something of an awkward point as the organisation sought to rebut complaints that they had brought Robinson and Carroll into the mainstream without any real change of heart. Robinson had explained that he was “indebted” to Geller for financial support for his family while he was in prison awaiting trial for passport fraud (although at the time, Geller said she was fundraising for Robinson’s “legal defence”); Geller, perhaps correctly, identifies this as a “cop out” explanation.

So far, the SION (“Stop Islamization of Nations”) website hasn’t been updated – Robinson and Carroll are still shown in two headline photos, and according to the text:

The initial members of the President’s Council are SIOE’s Anders Gravers; Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll of the EDL; Debbie Robinson of the Q Society of Australia, Robert Spencer and me. 

…The President’s Council differs from the SION Board, which includes Swiss parliamentarian Oskar Freysinger; Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media; Ashraf Rameleh of Voice of the Copts; Ali Sina, the renowned ex-Muslim author and founder of FaithFreedom.org; Wafa Sultan, the ex-Muslim human rights activist and author; the German pro-freedom activist Stefan Herre of Politically Incorrect; the Israeli author Dr. Mordechai Kedar; the Hindu human rights activist Babu Suseelan [more on him here – RB]; and Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE).

This Board functions in an advisory capacity, while the President’s Council is a steering committee.

In practical terms, SION appears to be simply a vehicle for Geller to show off her alliances – the text is written in first person, and in her new summary announcement that Robinson and Carroll have been kicked out she doesn’t bother to maintain the fussy distinction between her “Board” and her “President’s Council”.

Meanwhile, the EDL, under new leader Tim Ablitt, held a protest yesterday in Bradford. According to the anti-EDL EDLNews:

…The EDLers we spoke to were angry, shattered, dismayed, let down and ripped off. One member told us he has had trouble sleeping with all this going on.

Various threats were made towards Robinson by the very cult he started.

What is left of the EDL, was seen in Bradford this afternoon and barely 400 turned up to drag the rotting corpse of the far right organisation two hundred yards from the Queens to their demo point.

They got off to a bad start in failing to ingratiate themselves with the people of Bradford by forcing Bradford City FC to move their home game to last night due to the estimated 1,300 police officers required to police them.

Then this morning EDL’s new uncharismatic leader, Tim Ablitt, posted to his Facebook account that he was on his way to a ‘hell hole’, a sure fire way of attracting local support which was only in it’s tens to start with as most had to be shipped in from elsewhere.

Note

[*] Geller’s “other matters” were giving a presentation at the Synagogue of Pike County at the Jewish Fellowship of Hemlock Farms in Pennsylvania. The Fellowship reportedly “serves a diverse population from Reform to Orthodox to Reconstructionist”, and its Rabbi, Steve Nathan, is himself a Reconstructionist. Geller has been making inroads into religious Jewish groups in recent months.

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