It has been almost 36 hours since news broke that Stephen Lennon was leaving the EDL. Since then he has been touted around the television studios and inundated the airwaves with claims that he was turning his back on the street movement that he set up in 2009 because of the continuing battle to keep out racists and Nazis from it’s ranks.
He claimed that he had realised the futility of street protests and even admitted that the EDL had become “part of the problem”.
HOPE not hate was suspicious of his actions from the very beginning, not least because only three days before his damascene conversion he was camped outside the Reading home of someone he thought opposed the EDL. Hardly the behaviour of someone who was breaking from his past.
However, we gave the news of his departure a cautious welcome. Perhaps it was genuine. Perhaps we just wanted it to be true. Maybe it was because we could not believe that the Quilliam Foundation would publicly and so aggressively trumpet Lennon’s conversion if it was not real.
Now, 36 hours on, our concerns about this whole affair appear to be growing or even confirmed.
The much publicised press conference is best remembered for what Lennon didn’t say. There was no remorse for his own role in stirring up anti-Muslim hatred over the years. There was no acknowledgement that he had deliberately conflated everyday practices of mainstream Muslims with a tiny minority of Islamist extremists. There was no apology for the millions of pounds wasted or thousands of people EDL demos had targeted and scared.
All we got was the blame being put on alleged Nazis within the group and an admission that street protests were futile. Pressed by the media, Kevin Carroll, Lennon’s cousin and number two, said: “We are still singing off the same him sheet.” Later that evening, Lennon refused to answer Paxman’s question as to whether his views had changed. On Channel Four News, he initially denied having ever made anti-Muslim remarks.
Two people who do not think Lennon has changed are Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, arguably the most important anti-Muslim activists in the world. Shortly before the sham news conference Geller blogged her support for Lennon’s decision to leave the EDL and looked forward to working with him in the future. Pressed to renounce the pair at the news conference, Lennon not only refused but spoke positively of them.
Lennon and his supporters had indicated that they plan to establish a new anti-Islamist movement but devoid of the Nazis who ruined the EDL. It sounds a bit like business as usual for the former EDL leader.
The Quilliam Foundation and it’s supporters have pleaded for patience, arguing that political conversions do not happen overnight and old habits and views die hard. Sadly, this appears to be a desperate attempt at damage limitation for an organisation whose credibility will be ruined if Lennon’s conversion proves to be false.
It emerged at the press conference that Lennon had only been in contact with Quilliam for a week and that they had only actually met twice. Perhaps if Quilliam had taken events a bit slower and not rushed to claim a PR coup then we would all be clearer about Lennon and Carroll’s real motives.
HOPE not hate staff has dealt with dozens of people who have come out of far right groups. Most do it privately but a few publicly. The difference is that they show real remorse and contrition for their past activities and some, like my close colleague Matthew Collins, now works tirelessly to ensure others do not make the same mistake.
We have heard nothing like this from Lennon and Carroll and we are left to wonder whether this is a tactical rather than political change.
Quilliam must be hoping that Lennon and Carroll come good, otherwise they could end up contributing to the formation of a new sanitised and mainstream anti-Muslim organisation firmly embedded to an international movement involving haters such as Pam Geller.
Last night Lennon described his former EDL colleagues as “the best people of his life”. Today, on twitter, he shared friendly conversations with a member of the EDL security team who was once imprisoned for a racist attack.
36 hours after the news broke, Lennon and Carroll’s political shift is looking more like a political stunt.
