British Islamophobe Pleads Guilty After Entering U.S. Illegally
Since being jailed in Britain shortly after returning from an illegal trip to the United States to speak to a gathering of anti-Muslim bigots last September, the ranks of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon鈥檚 far-right English Defence League have reportedly been dwindling.
Since being jailed in Britain shortly after returning from an illegal trip to the United States to speak to a gathering of anti-Muslim bigots last September, the ranks of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon鈥檚 far-right English Defence League have reportedly been dwindling.
Attendance at the group鈥檚 anti-Muslim rallies and marches is down and its members have been drifting away as the EDL 鈥渟plinters into more extreme factions,鈥� according to Channel 4 News in England.
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Yaxley-Lennon pleaded guilty on Jan. 7 to using a friend鈥檚 passport to illegally enter the United States to attend and address a conference in New York City of an international right-wing umbrella group, Stop Islamization of Nations (SION). The conference included a U.S. SION spinoff, Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA).
Pam Geller, the American anti-Muslim movement鈥檚 most visible and flamboyant figurehead and a Yaxley-Lennon ally, heads SIOA. Since Yaxley-Lennon鈥檚 arrest, Geller has tried to turn him into a martyr.
Calling him by his pseudonym, Tommy Robinson, Geller said in an Oct. 21 blog post that the arrest of the English extremist was an 鈥渙utrage鈥� and that he was a victim of a 鈥渞elentless campaign of attrition, harassment and political persecution of Robinson by a weak, sharia-compliant UK government.鈥�
A legal defense fund was set up on both sides of the Atlantic and his supporters called him a political prisoner. Geller vowed to 鈥渇ight alongside him.鈥�
But one anti-racist English blogger saw Geller鈥檚 position as hypocritical. 鈥淔or the number of times they scream about 鈥榠llegal immigrants鈥� setting foot on their precious land, you鈥檇 think they鈥檇 pick up on the fact that the EDL鈥檚 leader Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) entered America illegally.鈥�
After pleading guilty, the EDL leader was sentenced to 10 months in prison. But before sending him off to prison, there was a little confusion about which name to use in sentencing him: Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Tommy Robinson or even a third name.
When he returned to England, Yaxley-Lennon used his legal passport, which apparently bears his real name 鈥� Paul Harris.
In the end, the judge sentenced him as Stephen Lennon, 鈥渁lthough I suspect that is not actually your true name.鈥�
Whatever his true name, as the judge told him in court, 鈥淵ou knew perfectly well that you were not welcome in the United States.鈥�
