Far-right leader defends Muslim student subject to social media hate campaign
Far-right leader Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has defended and apologised to a Muslim student at Oxford University after she faced a barrage of abuse and anger from prominent right-wing personalities in Britain and the US, over a video clip from an Oxford Union debate which was taken out of context.
The debate at the prestigious debating society, held on 17 June, was on the motion "This House believes the West is right to be suspicious of Islam".
Robinson, an anti-Islam activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was debating on the motion's proposition team, which lost the debate.
A clip circulating online after the debate was published on YouTube late last week showed Aisha Khan-Aziz, a student speaker delivering the first speech for the opposition, introducing the speakers on the side opposite to her by making a joke about each of them, as is union tradition.
She introduced "Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known to his hooligans as Tommy Robinson". Robinson could be seen chuckling in response.
Khan-Aziz added in a light-hearted manner: "Stephen, there is a crowd outside rioting against you tonight, and without the protection and generosity of a Muslim Palestinian president and a largely South Asian executive committee, you would be quite literally cooked."
The comments seemed to be aimed at stressing the commitment of Muslim students at the union to free speech, and there was laughter and applause from the crowd.
The large left-wing protest outside had barred many people, including Khan-Aziz's own family members, from entering the debate.
At the start of his own speech, Robinson congratulated Khan-Aziz on her speech and praised the union president, Arwa Elrayess, for her "defence of free speech".
But over the past four days Khan-Aziz has received a litany of abuse on X, with prominent commentators accusing her of threatening Robinson with violence.
Robinson initially shared some of these posts, but then published a video on Tuesday saying the student's words were being taken out of context.
He later published a longer video on Tuesday evening saying he had watched "something be spun globally against a young girl who didn't intend that meaning... it was not meant as a threat and she couldn't have been nicer".
Robinson explained: "There wasn't a mob of Islamists outside the university. It wasn't a Muslim mob, it was a far-left, woke, white, liberal pathetic, middle-class mob.
"It wasn't Muslims. So when people listen to a Muslim woman talking about that and saying I'd get cooked, I can see how it can be taken as that. But it wasn't that."
Robinson added that Khan-Aziz's "family got attacked outside... her family would have been proud to see her standing there debating the way she debated, and they didn't get to see her".
He said "I spent most of the night talking to that girl. She was lovely. You couldn't meet a nicer girl."
Robinson also said: "I should have said this four days ago when it first come out. And I feel bad because I point scored because she was on the side of Islam. And I allowed what I know not to be true to continue momentum, which was a misrepresentation of what that girl meant."
He called this a "wanker move" and apologised to Khan-Aziz.
Storm of abuse
That same day Kevin Sorbo, an actor with 2.6 million followers on X, shared the short clip of Khan-Aziz's comments and captioned it: "You’re lucky we have paid security otherwise the Muslims outside would murder you for saying Islam is violent."
John Cleese, one of Britain's most famous comedians and actors, shared the clip on Sunday and remarked: "If this isn't a threat of violence, what is?" His post received 748,000 views.
American right-wing YouTuber Ben Shapiro, who has almost 9 million followers on X, remarked: "'You're lucky we Muslims in here are nice, because if we weren't, our co-religionists outside would burn you to death' isn't an amazing argument".
"You're lucky we Muslims in here are nice, because if we weren't, our co-religionists outside would burn you to death" isn't an amazing argument https://t.co/i1B0QOMMCr
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 2, 2026
Laurence Fox, one of Robinson's fellow debaters, said: "The confidence, dominance and arrogance to casually drop in a threat like this was menacing."
Steven Barrett, a barrister and writer who has been published in The Spectator, claimed the clip showed a "clear threat of violence" and wrote on X: "I expect the University, her College and the Oxfordshire police to act."
Peter Savodnik, a prominent journalist who has written for Vanity Fair and the New York Times, posted: "The students applauding should be expelled because they clearly know nothing about liberal education, and the adults who admitted them should be fired."
Meanwhile Peter Hague, a British scientist and writer, wrote on social media: "There is a gleeful menace to this, isn’t there? She loves violence, and loves the power it brings."
And Rod Dreher, an American conservative writer with more than 130,000 followers on X, posted: "She's essentially saying that life and safety of English dissidents depends on the goodwill of UK Muslims. At Oxford University. Think about that."
Larry Alex Taunton, who has been published by the New York Times, used abusive language about Khan-Aziz and said she "should be in jail".
Mike Cernovitch, a US media personality with more than a million followers, shared the clip and said: "In a war, we know how this would go. We don't need to guess. It would be 100 to 1 kill ratios. The primitives rely on state power to commit their crimes and are helpless without it. Yet they gloat and continue to threaten. Deport them all."
'I apologise'
Robinson said in his video on Tuesday: "I can only imagine for the last four days, when I know she didn't mean that, and I should have said that four days ago, I know she didn't mean that. She knows she didn't mean that. But yet the whole world's taken it that she meant that."
Robinson added: "I've been in that position, where your words are taken out of context and weaponised. And I guess I allowed it to be weaponised.
"So I apologise Aisha, if you're watching this. I apologise, because I know you didn't mean that. And I should have spoken up from the first minute, but I was too interested in point scoring on the side of us against Islam, which is a wanker move because I know you didn't mean it."
I WAS NOT THREATENED - I APOLOGISE
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 4, 2026
Please take a moment to watch this, and SHARE it.
I have to be honest with all of you as well as myself.
Aisha Khan said something very silly, however, it's been taken out of context and mischaracterised. pic.twitter.com/HrnxHaErah
Robinson also said he had spoken to "white English students" at Oxford who "are friends with Aisha" and "couldn't speak highly enough" of her, calling her a "wonderful soul".
During the debate, Khan-Aziz had argued "I agree that western values are worth defending... western critical thinking means I can read a scholar's commentary on a Quranic verse and decide that it might be right or wrong.
'I can hold my faith up to scrutiny without it shattering'
- Aisha Khan-Aziz, Oxford student and debater
"It means I can hold my faith up to scrutiny without it shattering, because a thing that cannot survive a question probably deserves to be questioned."
Elrayess, who was the union president, argued during the debate:
"Free speech and debate is not something I do despite being a Muslim, it is something I do because of it. I'm not betraying my religion, I'm practising it."
She said: "Vote against [the motion] to protect what is best in your own tradition, the right of every person in this country to be seen as a human being."
The motion was ultimately defeated by 41 to 57.