Calvin Robinson warns UK on 'cusp of a civil war' amid simmering tensions, riots
British Catholic cleric Calvin Robinson warned during an interview with The Christian Post that the simmering tensions in the United Kingdom that have recently spilled over into riots threaten to plunge the country into civil war.
Robinson, who joined the Old Catholic Church after departing Anglicanism, suggested that the U.K. and the United States face similar problems because of an elite who are out of touch with the average citizen.
"This is the establishment, or as you guys tend to call it, 'the blob,'" Robinson said regarding those who might have an interest in protecting some groups involved in the riots while demonizing others.
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"So over here, our mainstream media, our politicians, our church hierarchy — pretty much anyone that's part of that metropolitan liberal elite bubble — goes along with the same narrative," he said. "They have different agendas, different motivations, but I don't know how to break it down to them because there's a massive disconnect here."
Violent protests between largely white anti-immigration protesters and Muslim militia recently erupted in England and Northern Ireland after Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a second-generation Rwandan immigrant, fatally stabbed three young British girls aged 6, 7, and 9, and attempted to kill 10 others in Southport, England, which is about 17 miles north of Liverpool.
Rudakubana, who turned 18 days after the attack, was born in Cardiff, Wales, and false news circulated in the wake of the attack that he was a Muslim asylum seeker, though his actions have still prompted debate regarding to what extent large numbers of immigrants to the U.K. and their families are assimilating to British culture.
The U.K. government has been clamping down in response to the unrest to the point of London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley threatening to extradite U.S. citizens for making incendiary posts on social media. Their rhetoric has drawn condemnation from figures such as billionaire X CEO Elon Musk, who claimed civil war in the country is "inevitable" because of open borders and mass migration.
On Sunday, the Metropolitan Police of London warned about the proliferation of riot videos online that it alleged were being "shared to mislead or to fuel tension."
"We all have a responsibility not to further the spread of misinformation. Please think carefully before you share content posted online. Consider whether the account posting is trustworthy and what their intent might be," the police tweeted, prompting pushback from some X users who claimed the U.K. authorities were acting like "thought police."
Last week, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed the riots on "far-right thuggery," and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby penned an op-ed in The Guardian on Sunday claiming that the "far-right groups" allegedly contributing to them are "unchristian."
Robinson, who has claimed his ordination in the Church of England was blocked because of his conservative theological views, reserved particular condemnation for Welby.
"Archbishop of Canterbury comes out as anti-British, anti-working class and pro-Mohammedan. Can someone remind him it is supposed to be the Church of England, not the Mosque of Britanistan," Robinson tweeted Sunday.
"A majority of Anglicans around the world no longer recognize your authority. You are an apostate. It is time for you to repent and return the Church of England to orthodoxy," he added.
Robinson maintained to CP that while the vast majority of people in the U.K. are conservative, nominally Christian and adhere to traditionally British values, most of those in power are not and seem particularly sympathetic to Islam.
"What they see is this liberal worldview of anything that's foreign is to be exalted, whether it's a foreign idea or a foreign person," he said of the liberal elite. "And that goes for the Islamic faith in particular, because [with] these riots, we've seen many different types of people rioting for many different reasons because the country is a powder keg right now."
"I think we're on the cusp of a civil war," he added, echoing Musk. "It's that serious."
Robinson went on to note that some of the riots have been "mostly Mohammedans" who "have been out there with machetes and planks of wood and they've been beating up white Britons, they've been damaging people's cars and vandalizing pubs."
He suggested the U.K. establishment is reticent to address lawless behavior from Muslims "because to them diversity comes above everything. Diversity is their idol, and so they can't destroy that idol."
Robinson also took issue with the authorities blaming the riots on "the far right."
"So even when the evidence is right under their nose, that we can all see it as plain as day, they'll say, 'Well, actually what happened was the far right were talking, there were rumors of the far right meeting at some point today, and so the Islamic community came out and this is the context of it. This is why they're here.'"
"We can see there is no far right. The far right are not here," he added, likening such framing of the events to when U.S. media characterized the violent and deadly riots in the wake of George Floyd's death in 2020 as "largely peaceful" despite clear evidence to the contrary.
"Of course, it's not necessarily just the lie that's bothering us. It's the hypocrisy, it's the double standards," he said.
"This is why we're calling our prime minister 'Two-Tier Keir,' because the policing system seems to address one demographic entirely different to addressing the other," he continued. "If you are white, if you are a Christian, if you are British, you are treated like you are a thug. In fact, they use the term 'right-wing thuggery.'"
"Whereas if you are a Mohammedan, you can get away with anything. And this is the message they're saying to them. This is the message they're giving to that particular community: 'You can do what you like because we will protect you.' In fact, they've said this explicitly. They've said, 'We are going to give more money to protect the mosques.' It's like, protect the mosques from what? It's as many people in the mosques who are causing the trouble."
Christian Post reporter Ian Giatti contributed to this report.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
