Tommy Robinson has apologised to a Muslim student targeted by an aggressive online hate campaign after a viral clip of their Oxford Union debate was taken out of context.
The controversial debate in mid-June focused on the motion “This House believes the West is right to be suspicious of Islam.”
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, spoke in support of the motion, alongside Reclaim Party founder, Lawrence Fox, and Times of Israel journalist, Jonathan Sacerdoti. They lost the debate.
A clip circulating online after the debate was published on YouTube late last week, showed Aisha Khan-Aziz, a student speaker delivering the first speech for the opposition, introducing the speakers on the side opposite to her by making a joke about each of them, as per union tradition.
open image in galleryIntroducing the former English Defence League (EDL) co-founder, Ms Khan-Aziz said: “Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known to his hooligans as Tommy Robinson.
“Stephen, there is a crowd outside rioting against you tonight, and without the protection and generosity of a Muslim Palestinian president and a largely South Asian executive committee, you would be quite literally cooked.”
The comments are widely understood to have emphasised the commitment of ethnic minority groups to freedom of expression.
While Robinson congratulated the opposition during the debate, the release of the clip has seen Ms Khan-Aziz face a litany of abuse on X. The Oxford student is accused of threatening the EDL leader with violence by supporters of the far-right.
But in a surprise move on Tuesday, Robinson took to social media, issuing an apology to Ms Khan-Aziz for allowing her words to be “taken out of context and weaponised.”
Admitting that there was no “Muslim mob” outside the university, Robinson added: “So I apologise Aisha, if you’re watching this. I apologise, because I know you didn’t mean that.
“And I should have spoken up from the first minute, but I was too interested in point scoring on the side of us against Islam, which is a w****r move because I know you didn’t mean it.”
open image in galleryRobinson also said he had spoken to “white English students” who are friends with Aisha and “couldn’t speak highly enough” of her, calling her a “wonderful soul.”
Prominent commentators, including American right wing pundit, Ben Shapiro are among those who have taken to social media to call out Ms Khan-Aziz.
He reposted the debate clip with a caption: “[Khan-Aziz] tells Tommy Robinson he is lucky they’ve put security on for him otherwise their Pro-Islam supporters outside would beat him to death.”
Other public figures who have targeted the student on social media are actor Kevin Sorbo, columnist Rod Dreher, and US media personality Mike Cernovitch, who called for her to either be expelled, jailed or deported.
While Robinson’s statement has since amassed more than 900,000 views on X, critics online have maintained that the apology “does nothing” to combat rising Islamophobia in the UK, where hate crimes against British Muslims have reached “record levels,” according to Home Office data.
Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” movement is widely considered a contributor to Islamophobia, with Amnesty International UK having reported the far-right group to actively “whip up hatred towards Muslims, migrants and people of colour.”