05-30-2018
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The arrest and imprisonment of Stephen Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, has set off protests around the world. Lennon is a British right-wing activist who's been outspoken about the growing influence of Islam in that country. Some have compared him to a 'whistleblower.'
After his arrest, the British media was not allowed to report about it for days, bringing comparisons to the Soviet Union and George Orwell's 1984.
There have been demonstrations from Downing Street to as far away as Australia. A German parliament member has even offered him political asylum.
Lennon was arrested Friday for simply filming outside a court where a Muslim rape gang trial was being held. He was charged with contempt of court, and because of a prior suspended sentence, was immediately given a 13-month jail sentence. Some are afraid it could be a death sentence.
As the former leader of the English Defence League, and a loud voice warning about the Islamization of Britain, Lennon has become an important worldwide symbol of resistance to governments that have allowed radical Islam to grow inside their borders.
The British government views Lennon as a troublemaker and has been prosecuting and jailing him for years. He's been unable to work and has had to move his family several times.
"It's like loving a country that hates you," said Lennon, whose story is chronicled in his autobiography, Enemy of the State. "That's how it has felt. I have to look at the state as an enemy of our people."
When CBN News spent time with Lennon in his hometown of Luton in 2016, he told us he is convinced he will be killed someday, and he believes the British government wants him dead.
"I KNOW I'm going to get killed," he said. "I know there will be a time when people are watching this (interview) when I am killed. And I've known that for years."
What made Lennon's arrest even more 'Orwellian' was when the UK government slapped a ban on any British media coverage until Tuesday with a 5-day media gag order.
His supporters fear he could be murdered in prison.
Lennon took us to a prison which he called an "ISIS training camp" and where he believes he would have been killed by Muslim inmates if he had not forced officials to place him in solitary confinement.
"I've accepted that if I am going to go out, I'm going to go out on my terms," he said. "I'm not going to go out wearing a bulletproof vest or hiding because morally, what we're doing is right."
"I know how history is going to judge me," he continued. "So I may get slandered by politicians and media now, but I know that the generation learning history will know that I was on the right side."
But Lennon's millions of supporters are hoping and praying he survives his 13-month prison sentence.
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