Tommy Robinson released: All about the anti-Islam campaigner's family, ex-wife, kids and surprising net worth
Tommy Robinson, the co-founder of the English Defense League (EDL), served a jail sentence for the civil offense of contempt of court, but he was released from prison four months early.
Following his admission of several violations of a 2021 injunction, Robinson, 42, whose true name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was given an 18-month prison sentence in October.
He was prohibited from making the same false accusations against a Syrian immigrant who had successfully sued him for libel by the injunction.
On Tuesday morning, Robinson with a a thick beard, longer hair, and a rosary around his neck came out of Milton Keynes' HMP Woodhill.
The far-right man was seen talking for about 20 minutes on his X account. When asked how he was doing after being released, Robinson pointed to the jail behind him and remarked, 'Unfortunately, in a country that doesn't believe in free speech, being a citizen journalist, this place is an occupational hazard.'
The activist asserted that the British government had attacked him relentlessly, using lawfare as 'a weapon to silence me.'
He complimented Elon Musk, saying that 'if we didn't have X, everyone would just think I lied,' and that all efforts to "silence" and suppress him over the years had failed.
Later this year, Robinson plans to host a free speech event for supporters in London.
His first release date was set on July 26. However, the High Court lowered his sentence last week after concluding that he had demonstrated a "change in attitude" since receiving his term.
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Tommy Robinson was born to an Irish mother and an English father. He double-barrelled his last name after his mother married his stepfather, Thomas Lennon.
The anti-Islam crusader and convicted felon is thought to be worth between £1 million and £2 million. The Guardian claims that Robinson receives money from all over the world and has a global network of affluent bankers.
In a high court trial in 2022, he declared himself bankrupt after being sentenced to pay £100,000 in libel damages to a Syrian schoolboy about whom he had disseminated damaging, unfounded rumours online.
Robinson allegedly had access to up to £3 million through assets, investments, contributions, and book sales, according to the advocacy organization Hope Not Hate.
Robinson and his now-ex-wife Jenna Lennon got divorced in February 2021, just before the former was officially declared bankrupt. During their ten years of marriage, the former couple—who were married in 2011—had three children together, and Robinson's public persona was apparently unwelcome in the household.
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India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
Uddhav Thackerays Saamana Slams Shinde Faction Minister, Demands Dismissal For Marathi Insult
The Shiv Sena(UBT) in a scathing attack against the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena following its Minister Pratap Sarnaik's statement that Hindi has become a dialect or a spoken language in Mumbai, said on Monday that this is "humiliation" to the Marathi language and the minister should be dismissed. Minister Pratap Sarnaik, while addressing an event organised on the occasion of Hindi Patrakarita Diwas in Mumbai on Saturday, said, 'Hindi has become the language of speaking in Mumbai'. He also said that Marathi is his mother tongue, while Hindi is 'ladki bahin' (beloved sister), who helped secure 237 seats in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. The statement has been criticised by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT). In its hard-hitting editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Thackeray group claimed the Shinde faction, which considers itself the heirs of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, has become the pawns of the BJP. 'The BJP people do not leave a single opportunity to weaken Maharashtra, humiliate the Marathi language and the Marathi people. Therefore, the Shinde camp, a dependent of the BJP, is also repeating the BJP's anti-Marathi stance.' 'The ministers concerned should be dismissed for insulting the Marathi language and Maharashtra like this. Did 107 martyrs sacrifice their lives in the Samyukta Maharashtra struggle just to hear that Mumbai's language is not Marathi? But Mumbai and Maharashtra are currently ruled by traders and builders, and our Marathi language is being crushed under their bulldozers," said the editorial. 'When I come to Mira-Bhayander areas, Hindi automatically comes out of my mouth. Because the language of this area is Hindi, and you all vote for me," said the minister of the Marathi state. Does this Marathi fit into the official language policy? The official language of Maharashtra is Marathi, and now Marathi has been made mandatory in the central establishments in Maharashtra as well. This is not a policy for Maharashtra only. Those living in Bengal will have to learn Bengali, those living in Gujarat will have to learn Gujarati, and those living in the North will have to learn Hindi and deal with that language in that state. Being proud of our mother tongue or official language does not mean that we hate other language sisters. As soon as Pratap Sarnaik showered love on Hindi, BJP President Bawankule came to his aid. "Don't forget that we have given Marathi the status of a classical language," he said. Have your ministers been given the licence to insult Marathi by giving this status?" asked the Thackeray camp. "Have you been given permission to accommodate foreigners under the Marathi umbrella? Answer this first. Maharashtra has a population of 11.5 crore, and about nine crore of them speak Marathi. They do business in Marathi. Don't the ministers of the Shinde group know that there is a law that says that Marathi is the only official language of the state of Maharashtra, and everyone living here must know Marathi?" asked the editorial. "Marathi language is the language of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Veer Savarkar, Lokmanya Tilak and the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray," said the editorial. A few days ago, a leader of the RSS leader Bhaiyaji Joshi, visited Ghatkopar and mutually declared that the language of Ghatkopar is Gujarati. "When there was an uproar in Mumbai over this, Joshi clarified. Sarnaik and his leaders did not even show that much courtesy," claimed the editorial. "Shiv Sena was formed so that the Marathi people of Mumbai can live with dignity, and the Marathi language remains respected. Shiv Sena has been fighting many Marathi battles for 50 years. The Shinde faction has been working to tarnish Balasaheb Thackeray's struggle for the growth of the Marathi language, which is the language of the farmers of Maharashtra, the working people of Mumbai and the mill workers,' said the editorial. "Someone should tell all these BJP supporters that Marathi pride cannot be bought with corruption and contractors' money. Marathi is the language of every corner of Maharashtra. Ghatkopar and Mira-Bhayander have not been torn apart and thrown out of Maharashtra, and private builders have not made them independent, autonomous states. Maharashtra is and will remain intact. No matter how many raids the BJP conducts and no matter how much the Shinde faction people try to force Mumbai down the throats of the builders, every particle of Marathi soil will erupt like a volcano. The BJP's East India Company (Surat) has already sold Mumbai. The hypocrites, who call themselves the heirs of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, will definitely expel Marathi people from Mumbai when they become partners of this East India Company. Saying that the language of Mumbai is not Marathi is just the beginning. Marathi people will have to fight," said the editorial.
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Pakistan has no natural tendency to be democratic. Rule of Islam is the priority
So let us see whether these beliefs about Pakistan are true, or merely our own confirmation biases in action, where we evaluate others by our own standards and historical experience. It is my belief that you cannot judge an Islamic state by any standard except the one set by Islam's history. Three other statements made about Pakistan are equally worth questioning. One, Pakistan is a failed state. No state is a failed state unless it is totally incapable of using power to achieve its basic aims. This is far from being the case in Pakistan. Another half-truth is that the country has no self-definition beyond hatred for 'Hindu India'. And yet another assumption, which we have now begun to question, is that religion cannot be a basis for statehood. We started saying this after we helped create Bangladesh, but now we are back to square one, for the post-Hasina Bangladesh government is Islamist and effectively anti-India. We now have two Pakistans to confront, not just one. One of the enduring myths Indians are told about Pakistan is that the real hurdle to peace is its army, which is a state above the state. It is the Pakistani Army that needs to use terror as state policy against a stronger India, and this, in turn, enables the army to retain extraordinary power. That the Pakistani Army chief was recently elevated to the rank of Field Marshal after an indifferent performance in the short, near-war with India seems to reinforce this statement. Victory or defeat, the army will rule. Let's start with the frequently made statement—partially in jest—that other countries have an army, but in Pakistan, the army has a country. There is surely some truth to this, but we must consider other explanations too. Ask yourself, was the Pakistani state any different at the time of Partition, when its army, then run by British Generals, decided to use tribal forces to overrun and take over Jammu & Kashmir? Did a democratically elected Zulfikar Ali Bhutto have any different notions about India than its rapidly Islamising army under Zia ul-Haq? An alternate hypothesis would be that Muslim majority states have no natural tendency to remain democratic or secular, because Islam puts religion above the state, umma (a global community of Muslims) above the nation-state. In the imagined existence of an umma, the existence or non-existence of a state like Pakistan is immaterial. What matters is whether the state, or states, are under the rule of Islam. So, when secular historians point out that Islam does not provide a template for national unity, they are partly wrong. In Islam, a legitimate state must merely follow the sharia; so whether we have one Islamic state or 100, the umma remains one in theory. And this situation does not change whether it is an army that rules or a theocracy (with some notable exceptions). Neither of them is willing to accept the normal checks and balances that apply to any functioning democracy. This is why, despite having lost almost all wars with India and behaving brutally with its own insurgencies in Balochistan, the army is still the most popular institution in Pakistan, with 74 per cent approval ratings. The most important aspect of Islam (as with the Communists) is the acquisition of power, and hence it does not matter whether the person wielding the power is a mullah or a soldier, or someone who combines both functions. So when Field Marshal Asim Munir declares himself to be a believer in the two-nation theory, he is only validating his right to rule over all Muslims in Pakistan. Also read: Pakistan cyber attacked India right after Pahalgam. How govt acted against it Who rules an Islamic country? The ideological underpinnings of Islam start with the Prophet, who combined the roles of political, religious and military head of the community in Medina. His successor Caliphs followed the same policy. Unlike Christianity, which, after repeated clashes between church and state, accepted a bifurcation of sovereignty based on whether something belonged to the temporal sphere or the religious, in Islam, there is no such separation. In both Pakistan and Bangladesh, the military has often dumped the elected government, and the military uses religious authority to remain in power. Among Muslim-majority countries that have had short or long spells of military rule—Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Turkey (before Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist party came to power). Even the most benign of Muslim states, Indonesia, had a general, Suharto, as its president for nearly three decades. The rest are either theocratic (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan) or ruled by Muslim monarchs. And Nigeria, which is evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, has seen military dictatorships. Boko Haram, one of the most brutal terrorist organisations in the world, wants to turn it into a full-blown Islamic state. Some rulers may be liberal and some conservative, but the idea that the head of the state must represent religious authority is key in Muslim majority states (no doubt, with some honourable exceptions). Malaysia is somewhere in between. Islam is the official religion, but it gives guaranteed political spaces to its minorities as long as they don't threaten Islamic supremacy. The second part of the statement is vital, for it does not imply equal treatment for all religions. A Pew Research survey on Muslim attitudes to Sharia law in 39 countries (India was not surveyed, for some strange reason) found an overwhelming majority of Muslims favouring Sharia. By implication, one can conclude that—since Sharia needs to be imposed from above, by a ruler who has to be Muslim and proclaims Islam as the state religion and sets up laws to align with Sharia—the people who want Islamic law may not object to any ruler who promises them the same. Whether they wear the robes of clerics or military uniforms does not matter. In India's neighbourhood, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have 82-99 per cent of the population supporting Sharia. In Bangladesh, support was 82 per cent, which explains why even with a friendly Sheikh Hasina in place (before last August's student-led coup), the de-Hinduisation of Bangladesh continued. It is the nature of society that determines democracy and inclusion, not whether it is an army running the show or clerics or some more secular dictator. Nothing else can explain the steady decline of Hindus in Bangladesh from 22 per cent after Partition to under eight per cent now. Even when the ruler may be mildly secular, its polity is definitely not on the same page. Also read: India-Pakistan conflict exposed the real danger — China Pakistan will always be a problem The second point, that Pakistan is a country without a positive self-definition, is equally unimportant. Reason: Hatred is a strong binding force for nationhood. It gives the rulers and the population enormous ability to withstand economic deprivation. This is the main reason why Bhutto said that he would eat grass in order to fund the country's efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Hatred for the 'other' is one of the most powerful motivators. In our own Mahabharata, we can note how Ashwatthama's hatred for the Pandavas—for using subterfuge to kill his father Dronacharya in the Kurukshetra war—motivated him to kill almost the entire Pandava clan in the stealth of night. This happened even after the war had formally ended with the killing of Duryodhana. This is why Aman ki Aasha can never trump Pakistani hatred of India. The third point relates to Pakistan's status as an Islamic state, created as a redoubt to strengthen Islam against 'Hindu India'. This idea, too, has its roots in Islamic history, where the Prophet, when he was weak, chose to establish a regime in Medina, where he fused religion with military and political power. Once he gained in strength, he could take over Mecca without a fight, after abrogating the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, a 10-year peace treaty he had signed with the Meccans. Peace is useful only when you are weak. Pakistan, to note a scholarly work by Venkat Dhulipala, was about 'Creating a New Medina' for undivided India's minority Muslims. A Medina is always temporary, and meant to provide a sanctuary to build your strength till you are ready to take on your enemy. Two Medinas or three do not make this template irrelevant to understand what Pakistan is all about. The mere creation of Bangladesh did not enable the country to embrace secularism or pluralism, as it is now becoming apparent. For the future, it also implies that Balochistan may also become another Islamist country once it achieves freedom from Punjabi-ruled Pakistan. We must, of course, support the freedom movement to weaken Pakistan, but we should not be naive enough to believe that it implies a win for secularism in the end. As far as Pakistan is concerned, India has to reckon with the possibility that even if, at some point, its army were to be cut down to size, that country's enmity to 'Hindu India' will not cease. Terrorism could remain a way of life in Pakistan, either as one country or in truncated form, especially since terrorists are integrated into the army and civil society. A smaller Pakistan will become even more prone to foisting terror, since its army can no longer defeat India. What a truncated Pakistan will give us is a brief reprieve. Pakistan, as one unit or many mini-Pakistans, will continue to remain a problem for India, and possibly the world, under army rule or civilian rule. Also read: Asim Munir just stole his 5th star & has nothing to show for it. It'll make him desperate, dangerous Open up for reinterpretation So, what hope is there for peace in the future? The answer lies with thinking and questioning Muslims, who have been intimidated into silence by jihadi elements. It is only when ordinary Muslims start openly questioning the basic tenets of Islam and modifying or reinterpreting them for the modern era that jihadism will start shrinking. It is worth noting that global Islam closed the doors to ijtihad—the use of reason to interpret sacred texts—nearly 10 centuries ago, after briefly trying to begin the process during the 10th and 11th centuries CE. The age of Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd (Avicenna and Averroes to western writers), which dawned when Islamic armies ruled parts of Europe and came in touch with Greek philosophy, died by the end of the 11th century, when Al-Ghazali and the Asherite movement closed the gates to ijtihad and declared the Quran as not subject to revisionist and reason-based interpretations. These trends and the victory of non-reason are brilliantly captured in Robert R Reilly's book, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis. The revival of reason and tolerance needs the wider Muslim polity to end this continuing intellectual suicide. Things will change when Muslims reopen ijtihad. The starting point will be reached when they openly disown the idea of the umma as a brotherhood only of Muslims, or that the kafir is undeserving of equal rights. In India, Muslims must see other Indians, especially non-Muslims, as part of their core umma. The word kafir must be outlawed, for it is does not just mean non-believer, but someone worth dehumanising, and made actionable under the law as a put-down. Till then, we must judge Pakistan or any Islamist nation only in the context of Islamic history and experience. And be ready to defend ourselves. R Jagannathan is former Editorial Director, Swarajya. He tweets at @TheJaggi. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Karnataka HC orders demolition of illegal building, recovery of costs from BBMP officials
BENGALURU: In a strong move against civic apathy and unauthorised construction, the high court ordered the demolition of an illegal building at JP Nagar 5th Phase and directed that the costs be recovered from BBMP officials who failed to prevent the violation. The case centres around a residential building at Nanjundeshwara Layout , which local residents alleged was coming up without an approved building plan. Complaints were raised in Feb 2020, and during a site inspection, a BBMP joint commissioner confirmed the structure had no sanctioned plan. He assured the residents that the building would be demolished. But action never came. Instead, the builder allegedly colluded with BBMP engineers to procure a backdated plan. "They issued a 2021 plan and backdated it to 2020 to show as if it had been obtained before the construction. But the document was forged. The Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed this during its inquiry," said a resident who closely followed the case. Despite a Karnataka Appellate Tribunal ruling in favour of its demolition, BBMP remained inactive. The builder then moved the high court with the same forged documents. However, the court wasn't convinced. The involvement of BBMP officials came to light after the case was escalated in court by the building owner himself. Justice Sanjay Gowda, in his April 26 order, pulled no punches. He pointed out that the building plan was approved on March 6, 2021, while the spot inspection by the joint commissioner had occurred earlier, on Feb 28, 2021. The assistant director of town planning (ADTP) not only approved the plan but also issued a building licence on March 24, 2021. "The fact that the engineer was able to provide the licence plan number and the date itself indicates the nature of collusion between the applicant and the engineers concerned," the court noted. The building had massive deviations from the sanctioned norms. "As could be seen from the above, in respect of setback, there are deviations ranging from 20% to 95%. In respect of coverage, there is a deviation of 48.1%, in respect of built-up area, there is a deviation of 73.2% and in respect of FAR, there is a deviation of 73%. The report also points out that there is a violation of the sanctioned height by about 2.2 metres and there is an extra floor constructed. The report also indicates that there is a deviation to the extent of 48.1% in respect of all floors put up and this would therefore fundamentally indicate that there is a gross violation from the sanctioned plan which in fact was cancelled," the court said. Citing Section 321-B of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, the court clarified that if BBMP officers fail to stop illegal construction, they can be penalised. The more violations they overlook, the heavier the penalties. The court has now directed BBMP to take strict action. This includes holding an inquiry into officials, including retired ones who were involved in sanctioning the post-demolition plan. The court said BBMP should also recover the cost of demolition from these officials. "BBMP would also have to take action against the ADTP who sanctioned the plan after the order of confirmation was passed on March 19, 2021," the court noted.
