TOMMY & THE DARK FAR RIGHT - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - CAOLAN & ALI’S
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
205.40233
Summary
In this episode, I speak to Ali Dawood, who has been on the receiving end of abuse from Tommy Robinson over the last few years. He tells us about the abuse he received from the far-right activist and how he dealt with it.
Transcript
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The Home Affairs Correspondent Lizzy Dearden from The Independent released multiple stories
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about him and about the abuse that she suffered.
00:00:09.880
You claim you're very confident that there are these 109 verses in the Quran that says
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I said no problem, let's meet and let's talk about these specific verses.
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Then this all led up to May 2018 which was Day for Freedom which is where Tommy and loads
00:00:25.320
of other people from the international far right all spoke on stage.
00:00:30.480
Just talk us through what happened leading up to that event and then on the day.
00:00:56.180
The Home Affairs Correspondent Lizzy Dearden from The Independent released multiple stories
00:01:00.300
about him and about the abuse that she suffered when he turned up at her house at 10 o'clock
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at night, threatened to call her husband a paedophile and said that he would come back every single
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And this has started a huge conversation online about the type of abuse that people have been
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on the receiving end from Tommy over the last few years.
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There's people been speaking out about it for the first time in the last couple of days.
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And one of the most shocking cases of this is something that happened in 2018 to Ali Dawa
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Firstly, I want to thank you for having me here.
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So the thing is with specifically Tom Robinson.
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So social media, you know, especially with the far right and Britain first going to specific
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Muslim communities and bullying individuals things.
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You know, these people don't really know what's going on, you know, so I found that a bit irritating
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because I was like, okay, that's not really fair.
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And me, I don't like injustice done to anybody.
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So I was keep watching these videos and I felt really irritated.
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I was like, come on, you know, if we're going to have a dialogue, let's have a discussion,
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And I think I tweeted him on Twitter, Tommy Robinson.
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You know, you claim you're very confident, you know, that there are these 109 verses in the
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Quran that says kill the infidel wherever you find him.
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And I said, no problem, you know, let's meet and let's talk about these specific verses.
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And it's when he said that there was an attack in Manchester, the attack that happened in
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So Drake done a, he was, he was in a concert and he said to somebody, take your scarf off.
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So I think he was talking to a Muslim girl in the crowd who has a hijab on.
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So I'd done a video to Drake saying that, you know, basically that's wrong, you know,
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So I said to the Muslim audience, guys, you shouldn't be going to these concerts anyways.
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Cause there's all the kind of things that are not permissible in Islam.
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And he said, look, he was warning people to not go to this certain event because he knew
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So he merged the Manchester attack with the whole Drake thing.
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Like, like, how could you, how could you slander me like that?
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Because the thing is, you're putting my life in danger now.
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You know, you've got a maniac crowd that's watching you, the far right.
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Stating, and I think I heard you say, is it jihadi Ali, is that right?
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This has caused people to think you were involved in the Manchester bombing, yeah?
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I will shoot this filthy mix if I ever had the chance.
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So yeah, it just, it just, it just started from there really.
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And then this all led up to May 2018, which was Day for Freedom, which is where Tommy and loads
00:03:58.980
of other people from the international far right all spoke on stage.
00:04:03.780
Just talk us through what happened leading up to that event and then on the day.
00:04:08.480
So basically, I can remember I heard that there was a Freedom of Speech event happening.
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And there was a specific individual who was going to speak there as well.
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He's from a Sikh background, but he supports the far right, yeah?
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And the Sikh community kind of said to him, look, we've got enough to do with him.
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However, when I heard as a Sikh, he's going to be there.
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And I think I heard statements of, you know, everyone, it's open to everyone.
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You know, if it's open to everyone, I'm sure it's open to a Muslim as well, you know?
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And I thought, you know, I treated it a bit like a social experiment because I do social
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So I think I got in contact with, what's her name?
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I, I'll be honest, you see all this, you see the organisation for all this, the videos.
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I had loads of people coming up saying thank you for the day.
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Like, and then she was like, oh, that's a great idea.
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And I think she spoke to George and, and then they would say, we'll confirm, we'll confirm.
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Because I think you guys genuinely believed what you, you had principles.
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And I'm, I'm not really good at, like, I do a lot of YouTube videos here, but like speaking
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with hundreds of people looking at you, it's not the same.
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So I thought, okay, let me get the speech ready.
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So I called Mohammed Hijab and we went to a internet cafe near his house and then we
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were just putting this together and then we wrote it all down.
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And I thought like, to me, I was like, oh man, it's going to be, it's nerve wracking,
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If we was not being invited, it's, it's wrong for us to go there because it's a hostile
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You know, it's silly to go there and just, you know, provoke, even though us being there
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So if we're invited and I'm on the list, you know, and there was some YouTube videos
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by some other people where my name was on the list and I was like, bro, that's official.
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So me and Hijab, we walk, we went through the other side and then we walked past, it was
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I thought, you know, just walking past the crowd, we would have not made a life to the
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Some people were like, oh, that's Ali, that, oh yeah.
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And then one of the security came and he's like, Ali, what are you doing here?
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I'm invited, you know, it's like being invited to a party.
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Wait, wait, Ali, Ali, you're not talking today.
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And then you've got someone else saying, I think Lucy was there.
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And I started to realise there's an infight happening, you know, there's a definite infight
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Now, when you're making us wait behind the barriers, that's dangerous to us because we
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And there's security, even though those security might be with the same people who attacked
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From there onwards, I realised that basically, as far as I know, Tommy was told that basically,
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this was told to me directly, that if you let him speak, he's not going to leave that
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Meaning he's going to go up, but he's not going to come down, yeah?
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And they said to him, basically, you're not allowed to do that.
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So Tommy, obviously knowing, he had to throw people under the bus.
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And you can see that they were just, you know, hostile.
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We were always having debates left, right, centre.
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They didn't like it, you know, when things were turned back on them.
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Because I was saying, look, you're calling me a paedophile, yeah?
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I'm so sorry, like, I'm not trying to be generalised here, but I said, most paedophiles
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I'm not saying all of them, but I said, if you're going to use that on me, and then
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And, yeah, and then from there onwards, what we saw was that basically, I'm not allowed
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Now, that's well and good, but now when you're crowded, they're surrounding us, yeah?
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These thugs, they're drunk, they're shouting, abused, they're swearing.
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And Lucy just said to us, look, when I say 3, 2, 1,
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Like, basically, you follow the security guard, and just go.
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I told the same to Hijab, and that's exactly what we did.
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But what I didn't realize is that as we're going, I'm thinking, okay, Hijab's behind
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I didn't know that the attack happened behind me, because everyone's shouting anyways.
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So I went to the other side of the stage, and Hijab was being attacked on this side.
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And I was just standing there, and I was just thinking, oh my gosh, man, like, I don't
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know if they have a knife, what were they going to do?
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But thank God the officers came and surrounded me and took me, you know?
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And it's a crazy story, because I can confirm you were invited right up until the moment
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I mean, for so long, people like Tommy have constantly pushed that the left are the real