This hardline US conservative think tank says it’s funding Tommy Robinson rallies in the UK 6,000 people came out in support of the EDL founder in London

After 100,000 people attended a huge anti-Trump protest on Friday, Free Tommy Robinson supporters held their own demonstration in Whitehall on Saturday.

Police estimated that 6-8,000 people attended, less than attended a previous rally about the same cause in June.

Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the founder of the EDL, and was jailed for 13 months after pleading guilty to a contempt of court charge. Rallies have since been held demanding his release.

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Funding of the rallies

However, while the groups organising the rallies have previously claimed to be self-funded or from donations, a hardline US conservative think tank, Middle East Forum, have said they have actually been funding the demonstrations.

In a post on its website last week, the group took responsibility for financing both the Free Tommy Robinson rally on June 9, and the rally on 14 July. The earlier event turned violent, and saw attendees attacking the police, hurling barriers and other projectiles.

This is the third rally organised since April in support of Robinson. The first, the ‘Day For Freedom‘, was prompted by the far-right figurehead’s ban from Twitter, and saw a variety of street-level activists, right-wing politicians and fascist online provocateurs speak. A number of them also went on to speak at the rally in June.

Middle East Forum

The think tank claiming to fund the rallies is described by the anti-extremist organisation Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) as “fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment.”

The president of the MEF, Daniel Pipes, has a history of supporting far-right parties, including the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) and Sweden Democrats, the populists who have experienced a recent surge in support according to the polls ahead of the Swedish election later this year.

Pipes was also a key promoter of the myth that there were European “no-go zones”, falsely claiming in 2006 that 751 muslim-controlled areas existed in France where the police couldn’t enter. This untruth has gone on to become a key pillar of modern far-right ideology.

In their post last week, Middle East Forum said that they provided diplomatic and political support for Robinson, as well as funding for his legal defence. His first appeal date is set for 18 July.

They also said that they organised and funded the rallies on 9 June and 14 July. One organiser of the rally, Caolan Robertson, told i that MEF did not provide direction for the protests.

However, a different organiser, ex-Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam, is a fellow at the MEF.

First three speakers – Raheem Kassam, Gerard Batten and Lord Pearson (once the video starts working) have all been UKIP pic.twitter.com/sPENHxdnBM — Luke Bailey (@imbadatlife) July 14, 2018

A coalition of groups in attendance

Multiple different groups were involved in Saturday’s rally, from a variety of different origins.

UKIP’s current leader Gerard Batten MEP spoke, as well as UKIP peer Lord Pearson in a pre-recorded video. Kassam, former chief advisor to Nigel Farage, hosted the event.

Batten has been vocal in his support for Robinson, speaking at the Day For Freedom prior to his arrest, and at the Free Tommy Robinson rally on 9 June. Since then, a number of social media activists have splashily joined UKIP.

Paul Joseph Watson of InfoWars – the right-wing conspiracy site that claimed the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting were actors – now has a video encouraging people to join the party on the homepage of UKIP.

Also joining UKIP were Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), an Islamophobic YouTuber who’s been repeatedly banned from Twitter, and Mark Meechan, better known as Count Dankula, the YouTube comedian fined £800 for repeatedly saying “gas the jews” in a video about his dog.

Geert Wilders was scheduled to speak, but eventually tweeted that he wouldn’t be attending for security reasons, instead appearing via video link. Wilders’ anti-immigration electoral campaign in the Netherlands was also funded by the Middle East Forum.

There were also members of street-level groups The Football Lad’s Alliance (FLA), the Democratic Football Lad’s Alliance (DFLA) and Veterans Against Terrorism. They claim to fight terrorism, while primarily making Islamophobic far-right arguments. They also have links to football hooligan firms, and a number of their Facebook groups indicated that many members wouldn’t attend, preferring to watch England third-place World Cup playoff match against Belgium.

A small number of Generation Identity activists, a neo-fascist group, also appeared at the march with a large number of flags that they then spread out into the crowd.

Generation Identity have 10 flags and 2 massive banners, impressive since there are maybe 14 of them. pic.twitter.com/2Ucy8HLaOE — Luke Bailey (@imbadatlife) July 14, 2018

Diplomatic channels

Reuters reported on Friday that Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, had spoken to Sir Kim Darroch, the UK Ambassador to the US in June about Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment.

Brownback allegedly told Darroch that the Trump administration would be “be compelled to criticize Britain’s handling of the case.”

A US State Department spokesman said to the news outlet that the “characterizations” were “false,” without elaborating further.

Caolan Robertson said to i that: “Sam has done a tremendous job in supporting Tommy in his time of political oppression.”