Ever ready to rile up his followers, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, has once more garnered himself significant self-publicity, got his fans suitably outraged, and by doing so has caused trouble for a group of young men who will soon find themselves repenting at leisure. The latest stunt involves the Army.
Lennon, it seems, encountered a group of what look to have been Army cadets at a motorway service area. He later posted a video with the comment “A moment like this makes it all worth while. Today I met real British heroes”. The group chanted his name. This caused concern to some, and Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain was one of them. He notified the Army and then posted their response.
It was not good news for Lennon’s fans. “An Army spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of a photograph and video of a group of Army personnel on social media and are investigating the circumstances surrounding this. Anyone who is in breach of the Army's values and standards will face administrative action’”. Another statement followed.
This time, the question of political ideology was addressed directly. “Far right ideology is completely at odds with the values and ethos of the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces have robust measures in place to ensure those exhibiting extremist views are neither tolerated nor permitted to serve”. Lennon and his pals weren’t having that.
Typical of his fans’ response was this disturbing threat from Daniel Hood: “Tommy Robinson has more support in the @BritishArmy than @theresa_may. Be warned, if you start to persecute soldiers for their support of him, you'll see something happen you cannot control. As a former British Paratrooper I'm telling you straight. We underwrite you”.
Hood manages to miss that the ones doing the underwriting are the taxpayers - of all faiths and none - whose taxes keep the armed forces going. But then, someone whose Twitter feed includes Richard Kemp and Ann Coulter may not readily grasp such realities.
In the meantime, Lennon has decided to whip up the mob yet further. After snapping “Watch the backlash if the army attempt to discipline these young recruits for expressing the very freedoms they are expected to fight & die for”, he has now started a petition. “They cannot be allowed to remove the freedoms of our armed forces for political correctness. Please sign the petition”. It’s called “Stand With Our Lads”.
So let me put Lennon and his pals straight. One, the armed forces have one loyalty, and one alone. That loyalty is to the Crown. It is not to any politician, and certainly not to a career criminal with a reputation for intimidation and violence. Two, Army regulations expressly forbid any expression of political partiality (you can see the relevant Defence Instructions and Notices setting that out in this post).
Lest we forget
And Three, as we’re marking the centenary of The Great War at present, perhaps Stephen Lennon and his Muslim-bashing pals might do well to remember that around 400,000 Muslims fought for this country in that conflict. Many made the ultimate sacrifice. The total number of Muslim participants in The Great War was around two and a half million.
Screwing around with the loyalties of our armed forces is bang out of order. End of story.
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13 comments:
"Far right ideology is completely at odds with the values and ethos of the Armed Forces."
Oh really?
Such as the "values and ethos" of the anonymous general who threatened treason after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party?
Robinson is "Far-right" solely because of his anti-islam stance. In what way can the inquitious ideology of islam be a cause of the far-left seeing it shares none of it's values?
Islam is extreme in it's views. Therefore if the army is supposed to be non-political and impartial in all respects how come it actively seeks to recruit muslims and then excuses them certain duties (like fighting against muslims!) !!
Did Stroppy Gobinson get permission from the boys parents?
Anon 12:23 - Robinson is far right because of his racial views as well - witness his former leadership (such as it was) of the EDL. And because he is a tosser of the highest order.
But there will be a proportion of the army that shares his views - one or two soldiers have been arrested for membership of National Action and/or other groups.
Anon 12:23
The British Army is in places like Afghanistan fighting terrorists/extremists and Muslims who join fighting regiments are not excused postings.
The whole of your badly written post is nothing but illogical crap and falsehoods.
Still, never mind, the career criminals and thugs who support twat S Y L are incapable of reason so it's* okay by you.
* Note the correct use of 'it's' - An abbreviation of 'it is'.
I can only speak from what I know, but a Muslim friend, who is a soldier and who has served in Afghanistan, is one of the most anti-extremist Islam people I know, partly because of idiots tarring all Muslims with the same brush because of the actions of the few.
But it is the actions of "the few" that mean we must treat all muslims with suspicion, like we did enemy aliens in two world wars. Burn your poppy with pride!
Anyone with Muslim friends should ask them exactly what it is that Islam can give us and how it is an advance on the sermon on the mount and the message of Jesus that Christianity followed to create our modern world and why Islam has failed to do this.
But of course, like our establishment, it is easier to attack the messenger than address the problem. But you will have to one day, it's demands can never be satisfied!
@7
If you are unaware of Islam's contribution to our knowledge, then you should make yourself knowledgeable.
Because Islamic scholars made considerable contributions to our knowledge on a range of subjects.
You might also strive to improve your command of the English language, and especially punctuation.
You're welcome.
Anon 18:23
Using your stupid twat logic: The actions of the few Americans who go berserk with assault rifles means that we must treat all USA citizens with suspicion.
As for your New Testament twaddle: Jesus wept.
The modern world owes much to the Arab world for preserving the mathematics and philosophy of ancient Greece after the fall of the Roman empire.
The people of the Middle East, Persia, India made advances in mathematics and science whilst Europe was in the Dark Ages.
Our number system 0123456789 is Arabic. There is no such number zero in Roman numerals. The word 'Algebra' is derived from the Arabic 'al-jabr'.
And, there's a lot more.
Give me modern science, medicine, technology, engineering etc., but you can keep shit-brained thugs, like Yaxley Lennon, to yourself.
Anon 18:23 – you have been a busy troll today!
Firstly the vast majority (all?) of ‘enemy’ aliens during two world wars were of no threat to us – we had large numbers of both Germans and Italians fighting for us in WWII because they had mainly left their homeland due to religious/political persecution. Japanese in America were horrified at what their nation had done and felt the need to absorb the punishment handed out through their national guilt – there were more American traitors than there were active Japanese spies/saboteurs.
But you are in favour of a pissing contest with Muslim extremists by claiming that your invisible friend is more powerful than theirs? (Hint: all religious books should be in the fiction section of your local library rather than taken as a basis for a belief system)
The problem, as you call it, is that extremists are lying to their own benefit – theirs are distorting their religious fiction to subjugate women and convince believers that it will all be theirs if they are killed in a holy war, while our right wingers are using their pull to make the population believe that – much as it was in the wild west – the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.
And ‘our’ establishment is singing from your hymn sheet – they are happy to point the finger at the vast peaceful majority than acknowledge that the majority of Muslims are of no threat to anyone, while you swallow that propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Anon 18:23
Oh, a deluded religious crackpot! We should have known. Why's your religion better than theirs? Your arrogant assumption that we must all assume your religion is somehow the golden standard others should be judged by is pathetic, and your ramblings nonsensical.
You wouldn't even be able to add up if it weren't for the work of Muslims.
That squaddie will have been given the elbow for something more serious. Military criminals do time in the Glasshouse or for something more serious they get imprisoned in Collie (not nice ) then soldier on or they are dismissed. Yaxley,if he values our defences, should be addressing the state of our forces. We are in dire straits especially our navy which is inexcusable for an island. Their main preoccupation was cutting our trawlers nets which didn't adhere to eu policy. Not to worry he is an expert in defence and theology and that loud mouthed irrelevance Alex Jones adores him as does that fake blond woman with the gob. He's going nowhere there are far bigger, more sinister problems ahead. By the way Yaxley would have messed himself in training, never mind action. Yoiks and tally ho.
You lot are mad islam has no place here no muslims are not all bad but the many that are are that sick n twisted its no surprise they all get crap. Put england first n tommy is right if not why not take him down legally without lies n false reports when foul play is only way u gota think they cant do shit becausr he is spot on n all u dumbasses when ur daughter gets raped by 50 paki muslims groomed smacked up dont ring police deal with problem yaself as u wanted the cunts here
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