​The Real Reason I'm Debating Tommy Robinson Debate at the Oxford Union

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]We and our faith are under attack. To those Oxford student societies that have expressed concern about Tommy's attendance at this debate, do not deprive us Muslims of the right to defend ourselves in the realm of intellectual discussion and debate. The narrative that Tommy and his ilk pedals about Islam and Muslims can only be effectively challenged by Muslims.

[00:00:17]As-salamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. I'm here to talk about my upcoming debate with Tommy Robinson at the Oxford Union, where I was invited to speak on the opposition side of the debate on the motion This house believes the West is right to be suspicious of Islam. Opposing me in the motion is not only the infamous far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, but also Laurence Fox, leader of the small UK right-wing Reclaim Party, and {quote} and {unquote} Reverend Calvin Robinson, former GB News presenter and Christian nationalist.

[00:00:53]At the time of the invitation, the panelist speaking on my side still yet to be confirmed. Now, I've spoken at the Oxford Union twice before in the past, and this upcoming debate will actually not be the first time I've debated Tommy Robinson. But, the reason I'm making this video is to address the concerns that many students there and some in the Muslim community have expressed, namely that they don't want Tommy Robinson to attend this debate. This means that we need to talk about something deeper than this debate. The failure of strategy of silence versus interrupting the echo chambers.

[00:01:27]The Oxford Union president, Arwa El Raiss, who set up this debate, is a Muslim and a Gazan Palestinian who has family currently under fire in Gaza right now, and she is showing great courage and strategic foresight by hosting this event. Here's why. For 17 years, my organization, the Muslim Debate Initiative, has years of experience breaking into Western echo chambers to argue the Islamic narrative unapologetically. This is because we believe that you don't make a fire go out by simply closing the door and pretending it isn't burning. You go in and you extinguish it. Indeed, my colleagues and I at MDI have debated pro-Zionist pundits and far-right demagogues before, from Nigel Farage to Douglas Murray, on right-wing platforms, breaking into their echo chambers, reaching their audiences, many of whom are genuinely misguided, and showing the wider world the real counterarguments against their hateful propaganda. But, would you recognize that the state of Israel should exist?

[00:02:33]Uh no states have a right to exist.

[00:02:35]People have a right to exist. States aren't are things we imagine in our our minds. Uh our mental constructs. They don't have a physical reality.

[00:02:41]>> Well, normally they humans They humans have a physical reality.

[00:02:44]>> canons and ranges You're talking about the Earth's crust, all right? And the Earth's crust exists, indeed. But, people exist physically, and people have a right to exist. And that is what this is all about. It's about the Palestinians' right to exist >> Israel exists and I'm simply saying that, unlike knee-jerk dog-whistle politics we hear from Douglas Murray, why don't we wait to the court case to see what motivated the individual.

[00:03:05]>> Is free Palestine, saying free Palestine, a statement that you'd condemn?

[00:03:08]>> Not just free Palestine on its own. No, it's everything it's things that go around that. Like like what? The abolition of apartheid?

[00:03:14]>> Well, from of treating Palestinians as second-class citizens, of no classes of mistreatment >> the fact of denying them rights The fact that from the river to the sea has some quite deep connotations when it's put in a Palestinian Palestinian context.

[00:03:26]>> for everybody. What's wrong with that?

[00:03:28]>> Nations last night passed a resolution.

[00:03:29]>> We even created our own platform to attract the followers of the far right and the right wing to listen to the Muslim and Islamic narrative, bringing their echo chambers into our debating chambers.

[00:03:42]In 2009, my organization was the first to publicly invite the British National Party to Conway Hall in central London to debate on the topic Islamification myth or reality.

[00:03:56]By the end of that debate, the BNP speaker actually admitted that the Islamification narrative was probably a myth. It's Jeffrey Marshall from the British National Party to perhaps sum up in a minute or two.

[00:04:10]Well, I suppose whilst accepting that Islamification is a relative term, it's possibly the problem isn't so great as some pretend. Um In 2010, MDI speakers such as the well-known Paul Williams of Blogging Theology debated Bill Baker of the English Defense League on Sky TV. I'm part of the indigenous white English population of of this country, indigenous as Bill is. So, I don't see myself as a part. I just happen to be also a Muslim as well.

[00:04:38]I do want to reassure English people who are not Muslims that you have nothing to fear from Islam, okay? We don't want you to stop eating pork and drinking alcohol and gambling. [music] You can do that.

[00:04:49]You're entitled to do that from Islamic understanding. We don't want to ban that. Everybody should get No, no, no. And they What you should get in trouble If you only read If you only read the Daily Express, if you only read the the mainstream media who distort what Islam is about, you will not hear this. You're absolutely right. What you got to do is extend your ear to what Muslims themselves are saying. The EDL eventually disowned Bill Baker because he made, in their words, a complete fool of himself. In 2011, we publicly challenged Tommy Robinson and his English Defense League to a debate. They replied, "Thanks, but no thanks."

[00:05:26]causing their own members to wonder why they're avoiding a one-on-one debate. In 2012, I was invited onto a TV show last minute and got to debate Tommy Robinson, to which he was woefully unprepared.

[00:05:39]There's certain verses where we 9:5, where obviously I'm not a scholar, but when it says things like when the most sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, but if they repent when you read that, that sounds synonymous with terrorism. And his misquoting of text just now is why don't you continue reading that text? It was talking about a specific historical situation where pagan Arab tribes were breaking their peace treaties with the Muslims, killing the Muslims, and the Quran said, "Right, for these tribes, you slay the their soldiers wherever you find them." And then it goes, "But those who have remained true to their covenant, then maintain that covenant with them." And even then, for those who ask for safety, then escort them to set to a place of safety for pagan Arabs.

[00:06:19]So, continue reading that Quran. Don't just give us sound bites, Tommy, because it's very misleading. You're misleading your own people. On the show, I challenged Tommy Robinson to debate me one-to-one. My organization challenged you to an affair and public platform.

[00:06:32]We're going to go through all these verses that you like to quote, and you said and you said, "Thanks, but no thanks." on your Facebook group. So, I'm challenging you.

[00:06:40]>> Uh no, no, on your Facebook group, yeah.

[00:06:42]Because you wouldn't respond to our emails. You wouldn't respond to our emails. I've never spoken to him in my life. Do you accept it? All right, we'll organize it then. I'm trying to organize it. To his credit, he actually agreed, and MDA organized a debate later that year, but unfortunately, the venue canceled the event last minute due to public pressure, and we couldn't find another one to host it.

[00:07:01]In 2014, I had a one-to-one debate with another member of the English Defence League at Bournemouth University, again calling him out for his ignorance.

[00:07:10]Scholar after scholar after scholar has uh condemned terrorism. No one will give them the time of day. The BBC, The Sun, the the the the Daily Mail.

[00:07:20]>> The internet is a great tool for free speech, and for you that but we don't see any of that from Muslims in this country. Sorry, just a question. When was the last time you Googled Muslims condemning terrorism?

[00:07:31]I don't know.

[00:07:32]You see, if you don't search, you won't find us. If you build your opinion on something which you haven't even at least try to see if they would does exist, you won't find I just like to make an honorable mention of a noble Muslim organization called I Era that also tried to set up a debate with Tommy Robinson and invited two other far-right speakers alongside me, Hamza Tzortzis, and Father Frank Gelli, an Anglican priest who are speaking in opposition to them. Unfortunately, Tommy and the other speakers all pulled out on that very day. And we were all left to have a discussion amongst ourselves.

[00:08:06]And I thank you on behalf of I Era for having me chair this debate. Sadly, and you probably know what I'm going to say now, Stephen Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, Paul Golding, and Anne Marie Waters have all backed out.

[00:08:21]These debates had another effect more than just breaking into echo chambers and attracting their audiences they listen to the unopposing view. The very existence of these debates refuted Tommy Robinson and the far-right's narrative that Muslims and Islam hate debate and are somehow trying to silence them and not let their message get heard. This is why I commend the Oxford Union president, Arwa, as she has demonstrated the foresight not just to use this debate with its deliberately provocative title to interrupt the far-right echo chambers and attract people to watch that would otherwise not hear the Muslim narrative, but the very fact that a Muslim invited Tommy Robinson, just like MDI publicly inviting him 15 years ago when he was much more fringe, refutes Tommy's narrative that Muslims want to silence him. Subhanallah, the very existence of this debate is a refutation of Tommy Robinson before he has even stepped into the chambers. Islam has had a long history of encouraging debate. From the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam's three-day cordial debate with the Christians of Najran to Islamic scholar Abu Hanifah's famous debates in 8th century Islamic Baghdad with atheists, Christians, and Jews, and many others. Debate is an Islamic tradition because we believe in the Quranic verse truth is clear from falsehood. And God says in the Quran, we dash truth upon falsehood and it smashes its brains out and therefore it departs. The problem is that Muslims don't have many fair, public, and popular platforms into non-Muslim discourses in the West. And when liberals or politicians defend us in public forums, their arguments are usually just do not hate Islam or Muslims because not all Muslims take the Quran seriously or because there are Muslim reformists who are liberal and will reform Islam into liberalism eventually.

[00:10:19]I'd like to ask the Muslims watching this, is this the kind of defense you want?

[00:10:23]Piers, can can I ask okay, what do you know about Islam? Quran. Have you read Have you Yes, I have. Have you read the Bible? Yes, have you read the biography of the Which has more Which has more violence in it? Piers, have you read the biography of Muhammad? Show some respect. Show some respect. Show some respect. To try and claim that the vast majority of Muslims were decent, law-abiding people, to try and abuse and mock their faith and their holy book is an outrage. Their holy book When you talk >> [laughter] >> to me When the sacred months have passed, slay the non-Muslims wherever you find them and take them captive and proceed to them and prepare for them in numbers.

[00:10:53]Who's slaying who? I'm not saying hate speech is discourse for my death. The translation of the verse says idolaters or polytheists, referring to the 7th century pagan Arabs.

[00:11:04]Tommy Robinson knows this because he said the correct translation to me 5 years before this interview with Piers Morgan. When the most sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. But slay the non-Muslims wherever you find them and The narrative that Tommy and his ilk pedals about Islam and Muslims can only be effectively challenged by Muslims. We and our faith are under attack. So, I say to those Oxford student societies that have expressed concern about Tommy's attendance at this debate, do not deprive us Muslims of the right to defend ourselves in the realm of intellectual discussion and debate. Now, Tommy Robinson and his fellow panelists may not be intellectuals, but it is dangerous elitism to ignore them. Tommy Robinson is not as marginal voice as he was in 2012 when I debated him.

[00:11:54]Recently, one of his books attacking Islam briefly topped number one on Amazon, and he has hundreds of thousands of followers on Elon Musk X or Twitter.

[00:12:04]And let's not forget that Tommy Robinson has already attended the Oxford Union in 2014 and was given an uncontested platform to give a speech there. So, it's a privilege and honor to be standing here today.

[00:12:18]But this upcoming event is different. It is the first time in a long time he will have his views actually contested to his face on a culturally significant debate platform. It is true that Tommy Robinson might use the platform to insult the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and some Muslims have used the verse of Quran saying not to sit with people who mock the revelations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. However, the classical Islamic scholar Imam al-Jassas explained that this verse does not apply when a Muslim faces them to {quote} reform people and to carry the message of truth, {unquote}.

[00:12:58]Otherwise, that would be impossible.

[00:13:00]Forget about Speakers' Corner.

[00:13:02]The strategy of silence has failed for two decades. The far right have far from disappeared. So, silence is not a strategy. It's surrender.

[00:13:12]I'd like to convey my thanks again to the president of the Oxford Union, Arwa, for hosting this debate. This event is not about platforming hate. It, inshallah, is an exorcism of it. This event is not about amplifying bigotry, but, inshallah, amplifying Muslim voices that challenge it.

[00:13:30]And to Tommy Robinson, if you're watching this, I'll see you at the debate. Don't run.