A tense Oxford Union debate on whether the West is right to be suspicious of Islam erupted into high-stakes confrontation when an Oxford student told far-Right activist Tommy Robinson that he was lucky the university provided security to prevent leftist protesters outside from attacking him.
Addressing Robinson, whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the student highlighted the large demonstration gathering outside the union building. She warned him that without the security provided by the union’s leadership, he would be “quite literally cooked.”
“Stephen, there is a crowd outside rioting against you tonight,” she said, “and without the protection and generosity of the Muslim-Palestinian president and a mostly South Asian executive committee, you’d be quite literally cooked.”
Robinson had blamed leftist protesters for the unrest, arguing that it was his opponents, rather than his supporters, who were creating chaos and clashing with law enforcement outside the venue.
To justify suspicion of the religion, Robinson pointed to severe legal and social measures enforced across Muslim-majority nations. He highlighted that 24 countries where Islam is the state religion criminalize homosexuality, with eight prescribing the death penalty. Responding to an audience member who questioned where Islamic texts sanction such executions, Robinson insisted the argument belonged not with him, but with countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia that enforce these laws, as well as extremist groups like ISIS and Hamas.
Robinson further cited capital and corporal punishments across the Islamic world, pointing to canonical legal codes that mandate lashing and stoning for adultery. He cited a seminar by a prominent U.K. imam, saying, “In 2023, the head imam of the Green Lane Mosque, the head imam — you can watch this video — actually gives a seminar to his congregation on how we keep the modesty of the woman before we smash rocks at her head. You see, she has to be buried up to a certain level to preserve her modesty.”
Expanding his critique to religious minorities and civil rights, Robinson claimed that centuries of persecution following early Islamic precedents had virtually eliminated Jewish and Christian populations across the Middle East. He also targeted the issue of child marriage, pointing out that seven of the 10 nations with the highest rates of child marriage are Muslim-majority states due to the absence of a defined minimum marriage age in their laws.
Closing his address, Robinson framed his position as a defense of classical liberal values, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you care about gay rights, if you care about women’s rights, if you care about children’s rights, If you care about human rights, or if you care about free speech, I urge you to support this motion.”
.png)
.png)
