Reports during the past 24 hours suggest that the Oxford Union has cancelled the appearance of violent criminal Tommy Robinson and two other Islamophobes, following pressure from anti-fascists in Oxford and nationwide.
The Union itself announced yesterday that the “debate” scheduled for 28 May has been “postponed” until later this term “to allow time for planning”. Oxford’s term ends on 20 June, and there are already debates scheduled on 4, 11, 13 and 18 June, as well as late afternoon or evening events on many other June dates. This leaves few opportunities for the far-right gang to make a rescheduled appearance.
Security bill
Robinson and the other extremist speakers, Lawrence Fox and Calvin Robinson, have been quick to claim they are being “cancelled”, and have put the blame on Thames Valley Police for presenting the Union with a hefty security bill.
As we expected, the only people willing to share a platform with these Islamophobes included a very marginal figure in the Muslim community who has his own alleged links to extremists.
Abdullah al Andalusi is a Muslim convert whose former name was Mouloud Farid. Under that name he managed to pass security vetting more than a decade ago and worked for almost two years (until July 2014) for HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Almost unknown
Andalusi describes himself as co-founder of the Muslim Debate Initiative and has managed to persuade several media outlets to give him credibility, though he is almost unknown in the Muslim community. He was reported in the mid-2010s to be “closely associated with the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir”, which has been banned as a terrorist organisation since 2024.
Calvin Robinson claims that Jacob Rees-Mogg was also going to be among the speakers. On his GB News show on Thursday, Rees-Mogg reported that Thames Valley Police was seeking to charge the Union between £50,000 and £80,000 to police the event. Rees-Mogg typically framed this in “free speech” terms.
A more urgent and relevant question is why Rees-Mogg and his cronies (both at Oxford and at GB News) see “free speech” so consistently in terms of platforming the far right, including violent criminals whose entire raison d’être is to incite racial and religious hatred?
Embarrassment
Since 2014 Rees-Mogg has been one of the trustees who run the registered charity Oxford Literary and Debating Union Charitable Trust (OLDUT), which owns the Union buildings and is responsible for its long-term future but traditionally does not interfere in its day-to-day politics and events.
Rees-Mogg’s willingness to politicise the Union’s affairs is becoming an embarrassment to the Trust and is obviously a conflict of interest. His fellow trustees should insist on his resignation if they wish to salvage the Union’s reputation.
Searchlight isn’t yet going to celebrate victory over the Robinson affair. It seems that next term’s President is unlikely to continue the recent policy of relentlessly promoting far right figures, but while Arwa Elrayess remains in office, it’s still possible there will be some attempt to give Robinson and other extremists a platform.
We are assured that anti-fascists in Oxford will continue to work with us in remaining vigilant against any such trickery.
