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THOUSANDS of people have signed a petition calling on Amazon and Facebook to stop promoting former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson’s “hate-filled” book on the Koran.
Anti-racist campaigner Maz Saleem, whose father was murdered by a nazi sympathiser in 2013, accused Mr Robinson of “demonising” two billion Muslims for their faith in his book Mohammed’s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam.
She launched the petition — which has almost 3,000 signatures — calling on the online giants to stop giving Mr Robinson “a platform to spread hate.”
“Its removal will be a significant boost to defend democratic human rights,” she said.
Mr Robinson is a former leader of the far-right EDL, founded in 2009, a gathering of thugs who organised street protests against Islam in British towns and cities that often turned into violence.
He stood down as leader in 2013 but has remained active on the far right, in 2015 starting a British wing of the far-right Pegida organisation, a German-based anti-Islam group.
Ms Saleem told the Star that she had yet to get a response from Amazon regarding the petition. She said: “Robinson’s book is appalling propaganda which will fuel more hatred and violence. It has reached number one in the sacred text charts, which is insulting to every religion.
“Amazon are putting profit above everything by continuing to sell this hate-filled book. I’ve called them a number of times but they don’t get back to you.”
A venue in Manchester is facing a backlash after announcing it will host An Evening with Tommy Robinson event as part of a promotional tour in November.
On the venue’s Facebook page James Wilson wrote: “Don’t go to a venue that promotes racism and the kind of hate this place is giving a platform to.”
But Bowler’s Exhibition Centre managing director Simon Colderly justified the decision to stage the event as he “did not think it fair to discriminate against Mr Robinson … due to his political views.”
However, Liverpool events website TicketQuarter confirmed it had removed an advert selling tickets for the Manchester event which was advertised over the weekend.
It said that “as soon as it was made aware” of the advert and the “content of the event” it removed the listing, insisting that it was not promoting or selling tickets.
