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  "path": "/2026/05/18/didnt-think-a-tommy-robinson-march-get-worse-wrong-28420763/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-18T15:31:45.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Opinion",
    "UK",
    "Columnists",
    "England",
    "Islamophobia",
    "Racism",
    "Tommy Robinson",
    "disorderly behaviour",
    "Tommy Robinson headlined rally",
    "flag-draped men",
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    "racist riots of recent years",
    "News Updates",
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    "supports HTML5\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo",
    "Muslim",
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  "textContent": "Since the racist riots of recent years, it has become depressingly expected to see our major cities turn into sites of hatred every few weeks (Picture: EPA)\n\nIt’s a great time to be in the business of making St George’s flags right now, as this weekend once again saw the heart of the nation turn into a sea of white and red (and beer, racism and **alleged** disorderly behaviour) with yet another far right march spreading hate and intimidation on our streets.\n\nThe Tommy Robinson headlined rally was named ‘Unite the Kingdom’.\n\nBut I didn’t feel much unity on the tube with my two children on Saturday afternoon among flag-draped men shouting about the effing foreigners and sexually harassing any woman dressed in anything less than a hijab.\n\nThis feeling of bracing myself whenever the latest round of far right marches kick off has, unfortunately, become all too familiar.\n\nSince the racist riots of recent years, it has become depressingly expected to see our major cities turn into sites of hatred every few weeks.\n\n##  Sign up for all of the latest stories\n\nStart your day informed with Metro's **News Updates** newsletter or get **Breaking News** alerts the moment it happens.\n\nTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo\n\nUp Next\n\nPrevious Page\n\nNext Page\n\nFor people like me, a visibly Muslim woman, those warnings and worried text messages to stay inside, to avoid such-and-such an area have become second nature.\n\nThe footage afterwards of people treating an event advocating for the deportation of people like me and my family as some sort of hilarious lads’ day out has become so routine that they barely warrant a response anymore.\n\nBut this weekend’s events felt viscerally different; noticeably more sinister.\n\nTake a look at the footage of attendees, at the speakers allowed – chosen, even – to be on stage at this march. To be, along with Tommy Robinson himself, the face of the event.\n\nSomeone who calls himself the Scottish Korean appeared on stage for a cello performance wearing bacon on his shoulders to ward off the Muslims (because, clearly, like vampires and garlic, we self-implode at the mere sight of a dead pig).\n\n> This was an Islamophobia rally – and the organisers didn’t make any secret of that\n>\n> QuoteQuote\n\nSo-called feminist group Collectif Nemesis wore niqabs on stage before stripping them off as the crowd laughed, jeered and chanted ‘take it off’ (I don’t know about you, but nothing screams feminism like the idea of thousands of drunk men shouting at women to undress!).\n\nKellie-Jay Keen, best known for her anti-trans activism, stood on the stage demanding that Islam be taken out of every ‘area of authority’ in the UK, whatever that means.\n\nWhen questioned on video by pro-Israel speaker Weronika Rogowska about what he’d do as Prime Minister, Tommy Robinson’s first answer was, ‘I’d stop Islam’.\n\nHaving spent one too many hours watching video interviews from recent rallies, including yesterday’s, it is painfully clear that the views of many attendees who hide their reasoning behind innocuous phrases like _I’m against illegal immigration_ or _I want the old Britain back_ all actually boil down to one thing and one thing only.\n\nIt feels like what visible Muslims like me have been living, and saying, for years has reached a tipping point (Picture: Nadeine Asbali)\n\nThat is a hatred for Muslims and Islam.\n\nAnd on Saturday, it felt like the mask was truly off.\n\nThe way rallies like these have long been presented by sections of the media and some politicians is either as outpourings of harmless patriotism at best or the valid concerns of overlooked citizens at worst.\n\nWe have been coached to see them as healthy, if perhaps mildly controversial, instances of democracy in action.\n\nWe’ve seen the odd attempt to present a Nakba Day protest held on the same day (commemorating the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel and subsequent displacement of Palestinians) as some sort of opposition to the far right rally; as though these are groups with opposing sides of the same argument.\n\nWe have been coached to see protests as healthy, if perhaps mildly controversial, instances of democracy in action (Picture: EPA)\n\nWhat we saw this weekend wasn’t an exercise in unity or patriotism – and it wasn’t a mere disagreement between ‘rival’ groups.\n\nThis was an Islamophobia rally – and the organisers didn’t make any secret of that.\n\nIt feels like the veneer has slipped away entirely, and the quiet parts aren’t just being said out loud – they’re now being shouted through a mega phone in the country’s capital city.\n\nIt feels like what visible Muslims like me have been living, and saying, for years has reached a tipping point.\n\nThese days, even expressing an anti-Muslim opinion about as boring and uncreative as ‘ban the burqa’ is enough to revive the political career of even the most irrelevant politician.\n\nThis weekend’s events felt viscerally different; noticeably more sinister (Picture: AFP)\n\nA conveniently-worded dog whistle comment about people bringing _their way of life_ to the UK or sheer misinformation like churches being turned en masse into mosques is enough to establish the most forgettable minister as Saint George reincarnate.\n\nNone of this is surprising for anyone who has been paying attention.\n\nIt’s no wonder that mass gatherings of anti-Muslim hate like this weekend’s are brushed off as mere ‘division’ when they are the logical end result of years – decades, even – of the manufacturing, embedding and then normalisation of Islamophobia in public life.\n\nThe fact is, this weekend should be a wake up call.\n\nThis was always about Islamophobia.\n\nThis level of widespread, overt, uncontainable hatred is no freak accident (Source: Anadolu)\n\nThis level of widespread, overt, uncontainable hatred is no freak accident.\n\nIt comes from years of Muslims being the ultimate scapegoat by structural inequality enabled by a generation of white men in suits.\n\nOn Saturday, those suits were replaced by crusader costumes and Union Jack tuxedos.\n\nBut the message was the same. And it was terrifying.\n\n**Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailingRoss.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. **\n\n**Share your views in the comments below.**\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "I didn’t think a Tommy Robinson march could get worse – I was wrong"
}