Twitter historian Mike Stuchbery shows how not to debate far right

Characters from the loony part of the right such as Paul Joseph Watson (Infowars crank who made his name as a 9/11 truther and loads of other conspiracies) or Peter Sweden (lunatic who among various things has dabbled in holocaust denial and flat earth) ought to be eminently easy low hanging fruit to “school”.

However not for former supply teacher Mike Stuchbery, who somehow manages to come out of exchanges with them looking just as foolish with his awfully smug abuse laden supposed “historical smackdowns” that prove little but his ability to skim read Wikipedia.

For instance see this irrelevant reply to a tweet here. “Your ancestors traded white slaves to Baghdad” which is followed by a thread mentioning some Islamic trinkets from centuries ago. What exactly has slave trade and some trinkets centuries ago got to do with a complaint that a country is changing in a way someone dislikes?

(As a sidenote it is amusing Peter Sweden bemoans “my culture” considering his anti-Semitic, homophobic, and tradlife misogynistic views would fit in nicely in Saudi Arabia.)



Here is another example: “is this a 15th-century French noblewoman or a 21-century Muslim woman from Luton?” Again what is the point? We should stop being bothered by niqabs in the UK as you found a picture of a veiled woman from over 500 years ago?


Then there is this attempt at a “historical smackdown” that inadvertently just simply backs up what the guy is saying.


This is a theme from Stuchbery’s tweets. A reply of “hey dickhead, in 1567 whites/Western country did this, PS get fucked” to whatever bad thing some far-right person is complaining about.

Here he is for example (in response to it being mentioned by some far-right account) on honour killings, a specific type of violence more common today within South Asian or Middle Eastern families, which he falsely conflates with domestic violence and homicide solely so he can say “whites do it too!”. There may be instances where that has happened, but saying “Honour-killing? Roman & Jewish culture allowed husbands to murder adulterous or disobedient wives” or Anne Boleyn’s death “could be described as an honour killing” is an utterly worthless point to make.

Firstly, no Anne Boleyn is not equivalent to cases such as Banaz Mahmod and Samia Shahid or others you read about from places like Pakistan (think you will find it was not Anne Boleyn’s own siblings and parents plotting to kill her for who she married). Also secondly, this is such a pathetic childishly tribal take on a serious issue. Those suffering from honour based violence today are not likely to find much comfort in being compared to the wives of Henry VIII.


Also on acid attacks: “Acid attacks are nothing new in Britain. They were quite common-place in Victorian London” and because that came earlier than their current prevalence in South Asia can be blamed on “whitey” for some reason. Why the issue of acid attacks needs to be viewed from some tribal lens of which race did it first is beyond me.


For someone who likes to talk of “melting pot”, Stuchbery has a habit of pointlessly bringing up “whites” that would impress the most obnoxiously identitarian of far-left or alt-right activists. Such as here: “Ah, the annual curated season, 'White People Can't Follow Simple Instructions'”. Why exactly does a story of somebody wearing the wrong shoes have to be made about race?


Unsurprisingly whilst he notes names such as “Democratic People's Republic of Korea” may not be perfect descriptors he cannot say the same for Antifa cretins, who he compares to WW2 heroes and praises their thuggish violence. Even Trevor Noah could strongly condemn those idiots.



He’s also pro punching Nazis, and doesn’t care even if innocent people get hit in the crossfire. And supports teachers’ pushing their politics on 10 year olds (or at least as long as it’s politics he agrees with like Donald Trump being Hitler).

(Another sidenote: Stuchbery says he lives in Luton, which is notably home to Amjen Choudary and his Al Muhajiroun crew, the hardcore Salafist Luton Islamic Centre, and Britain First on their “Christian Patrols”. Has the Twitter coward who applauds thugs and cries “punch them, punch them, never stop punching them” ever dared lay a finger on any of those people?).


Finally his takes on concerns over large scale Islamic migration to Europe are simply laughably stupid and twee.

For example another of his long threads compares the 50,000 Huguenot Protestants from France moving to England in the 16th century, to fears over large scale Islamic migration into Europe on the scale of over a million from failed states in the 21st century. Stuchbery says there are “many parallels” between the two, of course he neglects to mention the many obvious differences ...

He then rounds off the thread with this: “Anyhoo. Refugees? Asylum seekers? Nothing new under the sun. My Muslim neighbours in Luton work just as hard and contribute just as much. And if you somehow think that they're not assimilating... Dudes, they already took your damn biscuits”.


Somehow I find it doubtful those with concerns about large scale Muslim migration (who are also branded with a broad brush as all “xenophobic mouthbreathers” by Stuchbery) are likely to persuaded otherwise by pointing to Luton of all places, or that integration there is all going fine because a hijabi won a TV baking show.

On the contrary, Stuchbery again just unwittingly made the best argument for immigration scepticism possible. There is not a single sane person in the UK who would point to Luton, often referred to as “the UK’s Most Radicalised Town” and linked to dozens of jihadist plots and far-right rampages, as a good example of successfully well integrated Muslim migration.

Nobody in the UK would want their town to end up like Luton. Yet Stuchbery responds to the hyperbole on Fox News by portraying the problems in Luton as nothing but lies and claims “it’s actually probably the most accepting and welcoming place I’ve ever lived” and the fact it’s a “heavily Muslim area” is “part of the reason” it’s “fantastic”.

If he thinks that then great for him, but brushing over problems in places like Luton, and claiming everything there is just going swimmingly is as misleading as what you might see from the far-right. The right response to Fox News exaggerating is to call out and correct them, not to simply point at an exaggerated or false claim and then use that to just merrily deny real problems in order to portray everything “multicultural” as all hunky dory. This is just rancid dishonesty and denialism.

Nevertheless Stuchbery’s shtick has quickly become a Twitter favourite for some on the Left in particular churnalists at clickbait outlets looking for low effort articles. However you suspect though this is largely down to the awful people he has positioned himself against as his actual arguments are utterly terrible and unlikely to impress anyone beyond an echo chamber of those already sold on the “multicultural” bromides of a Justin Trudeau.

Moeen Ali's fraternising with Islamists and status as a "role model"


England all-rounder Moeen Ali has been on superb career best form this summer and deservedly has received acclaim for his performances. However as someone with a visibly devout Muslim identity succeeding some have also started championing him beyond his on field exploits as a great “role model”.

Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail called him “one of the most significant cricketers of this generation” because of his faith and “his crucial status as a role model for British Asians”. There have been numerous other articles in newspapers or from notable personalities on Twitter echoing that praise along identity lines.

The problem here is sports stars’ off pitch politics could be anything from far-left, to far-right, to David Icke. Often they may not advertise any noticeable political leanings at all, but having seen Ali’s Twitter feed that does not seem to be the case. He has hung around Islamist circles which are not at all good to put it mildly.

One such example of this are at events run by an organisation called “Knowledge 1st UK”, who stage “Light Upon Light” conferences showcasing just an array of the most utterly abhorrent speakers. For instance their most recent event last month advertises Abu Abdissalam, who spews hatred for the West, supports “stoning to death of the adulterer, cutting the hand of the thief, obligation of hijab, and so on”, plus defends convicted terrorist recruiter Ali Al-Tamimi. Along with Said Rageah, who promotes ideas of death for apostasy, blasphemy, and instructs women “not come out of the house unless it’s a necessity”.

Moeen Ali was also speaking at one of their “Light Upon Light” events last winter, where he shared a platform alongside Ismail Menk, a well-known Islamist cleric who he has also publicly embraced as “my friend and brother” and even follows fan pages dedicated to him.



Menk has called gays “filthy” and worse than “the dogs and the pigs”, and also defends hudud punishments such as for adultery saying “the Sharia says such a person should be stoned to death. That is there, there is no doubt, no debate”.

Video: Ismail Menk defends stoning to death those who commit 'zina'

Among Menk’s other views include preaching that music is haram: “there is no scholar on earth who allows you to listen to BeyoncĂ© or Michael Jackson”. He also promotes gender segregation, warns Muslims about greeting and giving gifts at Christmas or Diwali, and also a good friend of various extremists one being Zakir Naik, one of the most extreme preachers and banned in numerous countries across the world.

On the stage moderating this event with Ali and Menk was YouTube Islamist Ali Dawah, whose channel includes a series of “AskTheSheikh” videos with one of the most notorious loony hate preachers in the UK Haitham al-Haddad, videos slamming Muslims for saying “Merry Christmas” accusing them of “shirk”, explanations of how he had to cut ties with people because they listen to music (also regarded haram and shirk), plus public shaming of the hijabi twerking in a viral clip. He also tweets defences of punishment for apostasy which he labels “treason”, brands Maajid Nawaz  “munafiq who gets paid by zionists” and a “clear cut enemy of Islam”, and his feed is full of retweets of open Jabhat al-Nusra and Awlaki fan Majid Freeman plus support for groups like CAGE.

Another of the Islamists at this event Ali was posing for photos with and referred to as his “brother” was Wasim Kempson, a white Salafist convert who is frequently seen alongside some of the very worst extremists in the UK.

Kempson is a patron of the extremist charity HHUGS which has a record of defending terrorists, and Imam of the “West London Islamic Centre” who also routinely host extremists. He posts pictures of himself on social media grinning with banned extremist preacher Zakir Naik, and is also a regularly listed speaker at events (held by groups like CAGE or for causes such as “Bring Aafia [Siddiqui] home”) alongside a who’s who of the worst of Islamists in the UK such as Uthman Lateef, Abdurraheem Green and the Anjem Choudary rally going anti-Ahmadi preacher Sulaiman Gani, or Haitham al-Haddad and proven extremist Shakeel Begg (both fellow patrons of HHUGS) and many more.
Wasim Kempson at a 'Moeen Ali Foundation' event

That event unfortunately wasn’t the only time Ali has been posing for friendly photos with Kempson on social media recently. He also did so at an event in April for the Moeen Ali Foundation, where Kempson was featured on the poster as one the main guests.

The rest of the guests listed on the poster for that Moeen Ali Foundation event get even worse. They included Alomgir Ali and Faraz Farhat, both close associates and colleagues of Haitham al-Haddad. Alomgir Ali thinks secularism is a modern version of pre-Islamic idol worship, homosexuality is a crime, and women who wear perfume are fornicators and adulteresses. Farhat says stuff such as how he wants to “rid society” of the “evil” of music. Also listed was Murtaza Khan, another of the vilest of Islamists in the country who promotes ideas of stoning adulterers, killing homosexuals, and hatred towards non-Muslims.

This was an event with Moeen Ali’s own foundation, carrying his own image and name, and a bunch of truly despicable Islamists were advertised as guests. Ali’s fraternising with Islamists doesn’t stop there though.
Moeen Ali with Abu Eesa Niamatullah of Al Maghrib

He has also done YouTube chats with Abu Eesa Niamatullah from the virulently bigoted anti-Semitic Islamist group Al Maghrib (their founder and president has authored a paper titled  “Why the Jews are cursed” and endorsed stoning as a punishment for adultery among many other things). Niamatullah has a record of advocating Sharia, complaining of advances in gay rights, pushing the death penalty as punishment for blasphemy, plus expressed extremely anti-Semitic, misogynistic views, and regards liberal secular Muslims as a kind of fifth column.

Also briefly featured on that video was another notorious Islamist bigot from Al Maghrib Yasir Qadhi, who likewise has a long track record of expressing vile views on topics of homosexuality and barbaric punishments in an Islamic state. Ali has also shared platforms with him at events too.
Moeen Ali with Abubakr Islam (aka 'Roadside2Islam')

Ali also hangs out and appears to be friends with Islam Channel presenter Abubakr Islam (aka “Roadside2Islam”), who’s Twitter feed is seething with sectarian hate towards Shia who he refers to as “evil”“crazy people” that “I hate so much” and “make me sick”. Plus of course anti-Semitismhomophobia, heaps of misogynistic lecturing towards “naked” (ie non hijab wearing) women who he says men won’t respect or take seriously, retrograde announcements about “zina”, or how freemixing “kills the heart”, “music is haram” and “will take us to the hell fire fast”.

Ali follows virtually all these people on Twitter and other social media platforms too. All the other Islamic figures he follows, retweets or likes on Twitter just continue on a similar theme.
Ali friendly greeting Islamist Hamza Tzortzis

These include IERA’s Hamza Tzortzis (a Hizb ut-Tahrir linked extremist who has expressed support for apostasy and blasphemy punishments), Bilal Philips (who endorses the killing of apostates, and other hudud punishments, says there is no such thing as rape in marriage), the utterly embarrassing YouTuber Imran ibn Mansur aka “Dawah Man” (who calls homosexuals “filthy” and “diseased”), Islamist lobby group MEND, and of course Moazzam Begg from the terror apologist group CAGE of Jihadi John was “a beautiful young man” infamy.

Additionally Ali follows an account called “Salafi Masjid” (which plugs sectarian messages like: “the Rafidi Shi'ah intend evil for Islam and the Muslims”). Also the account from “Green Lane Masjid”, described as “a hardcore Wahhabi institution [...] known for bringing in hardline Wahhabi clerics in order to preach intolerance and hate”. Plus another Salafi account called “Pearls of Knowledge”, which tweets “the Jews were cursed”, more sectarian hate “the Rafidah Shia & Their Evil Way”, and obnoxious announcements of disbelievers going to hell. So it is perhaps not entirely unreasonable to deduce from all this some possibility that Ali may have Salafist leanings.

Anyway you would struggle to find a more disgusting, downright regressive, nasty collection of people amongst Muslims in the UK (short of actual jihadists of course) than these types who Ali shares platforms and pals around with at Islamist conferences, or done friendly YouTube chats with, or invited along to his own ‘Moeen Ali Foundation’ events, and follows and likes on Twitter.

Maybe this was just a mistake done through ignorance (in which case hopefully Ali realises this and makes a clear effort to denounce and distance himself from these crowds) and Ali has not himself made any public statements as awful as these people, but it does nevertheless raise questions in regards to whether he is this great “role model”.

If a sportsman was hanging amongst far-right PEGIDA circles, spoken at their events, and following numerous of their most egregious personalities on social media. Then whilst acknowledging their sporting ability, you would imagine most would hesitate to laud them in particular as having a “crucial status as a role model”.

The same ought to apply for what is the Islamist religious far-right that Moeen Ali hangs around with. Most British sportsmen of Muslim background do not go to Islamist events and pal around with such people. You do not see Mo Farah do this, or Nasser Hussain himself. Ali has a “crucial status” in the England team as an excellent all-rounder, but he is not the special role model off the pitch various people have made him out to be. On the contrary his fraternising with some of the most repugnant Islamists in the country arguably makes him a uniquely bad one.

Douglas Murray and the "fetid swamps" of the far right

On Douglas Murray’s latest appearance on Sam Harris’ podcast, the issue of his appearance on Stefan Molyneux’s YouTube show was raised and Harris talked of how “dicey this situation is” for him.

Murray responded firstly by admitting he is “promiscuous” in deciding whom he talks to, before going on to promote generally being open to discussions with a wide variety of people as opposed to “not speaking to anyone who isn’t 100% aligned with us”.

However this response didn’t quite meet the point Harris was attempting to make of why exactly this situation is “dicey”. This isn’t about refusing to talk with certain people, but the impression Murray’s appearance on such shows gives to its viewers.

As he stated Murray does anything but isolate himself from opposing views. Over the years he has talked with loads of people and debated all sorts with wacky views such as former KGB employees, various Islamists, or even extreme as actual ISIS supporters.

However there is a key variable here in regards to Molyneux. The fact is what Murray referred to as the “fetid swamps” of the far-right is a not inconsiderable part of his fan base.

As Harris mentioned, Molyneux’s show hosts a roll call of racists, misogynists, and conspiracy theorists. These include white nationalist Breivik fan Vox Day, lunatics from Infowars like Mike Cernovich or Alex Jones, an anti-Semitic holocaust revisionist from the extreme Red Ice Radio is his resident Sweden “expert”, whilst white supremacists Jared Taylor, or Helmuth Nyborg, who hang out at the sort of events that feature David Duke, are called upon to discuss race and IQ.

Molyneux is far from the only one in these circles to have praised Murray.

Kevin MacDonald, probably the leading promulgator of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in the USA, says “Douglas Murray rocks”. Geoffrey Miller, a far-right evolutionary psychologist who loves the likes of Vox Day and Moldbug, says “if enough people read this excellent Douglas Murray book, Europe still has some hope of surviving into the 22nd century”.

Tara McCarthy, white nationalist YouTuber who thinks interracial relationships are “borderline bestiality” and advocates deporting non-whites, says “I definitely recommend you buy Douglas Murray’s book and give it to [‘red pill’] your normie friends”.

Paul Weston, PEGIDA co-leader whose political party advocates banning Muslims from running for public office, executing “traitor politicians/journalists”, and published articles glorifying Radovan Karadzvic, lauds Murray’s book as “filled with wisdom, reality and logic”. Paul Joseph Watson, a conspiracy theorist at Alex Jones’ Infowars who made his name as a 9/11 truther and pushing countless other conspiracies which are generally anti-West and favourable towards Russia, calls it “the most important book of the 21st century so far”.

Other far right figures such as trolls Milo Yiannopolous or Katie Hopkins are big fans and call him “wonderful” or say “I love Douglas Murray”. Murray is also following and retweeting praise from accounts supportive of the likes of Britain First, Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, that also talks of “white genocide” and putting politicians on trial for treason.

It varies for each individual, but around these circles, you’ll hear conspiracies about pizzagate, Seth Rich, the Rothschilds, “white genocide”, and various other ugly sentiments directed particularly towards liberals, Jews, Muslims, non-whites, or women.


The Islamist far-right Murray has conversed with may be equally as beyond the pale in terms of nuttiness, but not a single sane person would get any impression at all of him being aligned with someone like Tariq Ramadan and that’s the difference. These people at least perceive Murray to be an ally and on their side.

You suspect Murray ought to know this difference too. In the past he correctly and entirely justifiably criticised Nicola Sturgeon for sharing a platform with the lunatic white Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, or Sayeeda Warsi for speaking at FOSIS (a group that frequently hosts various Islamists).

Here Murray fully understands the difference between his discussions with Ridley and Sturgeon sharing a platform with her. The latter is fellow travelling with a malevolent agenda that caters to a nasty audience of anti-Semites and theocrats, the former is challenging it. The only thing is in going to discuss the failures of mass immigration on Molyneux or Rebel Media (where Murray was interviewed by an idiot who accuses his friend Maajid Nawaz of having an “agenda of terrorism”), whose shows caters to an audience of paleo-cons, ethno-nationalists, and conspiracy theorists, Murray is unwittingly or not doing similar himself.

It would be inadvisable and worthy of criticism for anyone to go to toxic Islamist personalities or groups like MEND or ISNA to just discuss “Islamophobia”, bash the West, and play to their narratives. But the same also applies to far right and conspiracy platforms like the awful Rebel Media or Molyneux as an appropriate outlet to discuss failures of mass immigration.
Murray discussing "the future of
the west" with Rebel Media

In going on their shows and following the likes of them and Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter after they praised him, Murray is just further reinforcing their impression of him as an ally and fellow traveller. This can be forgiven for a mistake out of ignorance (if acknowledged as such), but there are others who will not be so generous, not least opponents eager to stigmatise him.

This brings us to another question of why Murray has been attracting more and more fans from the far-right, and whether he is particularly bothered these people have this impression of him.

In a 2010 article Murray slammed Russia Today as a “strange propaganda outfit” pumping out conspiracy “filth”. If he’s genuinely still worried about this conspiracy “filth”, and the “fetid swamps” of racism and anti-Semitic conspiracy he talks of, then he ought to perhaps be alarmed many of its most notable promulgators perceive him as an ally and are fans of his.

On Harris’ podcast late in 2015, Murray stated his goal “has always been to wake people up about [problems of mass immigration and Islam] and to make them take it seriously in order so it wasn’t left to [...] Marine Le Pen in the future”.

Yet curiously with the prospect of Trump or Le Pen in recent elections, Murray did not seem concerned enough to use his position as a commentator to critique them. Instead, although not endorsing them, his takes (such as “Trump won't be as bad as you think” and “Is Le Pen really far-right?”) were consistently apologetic usually focusing solely on lambasting Left wing hyperbole, hypocrisy and overreach, and either downplaying or ignoring the legitimate concerns many have about the dangers of these candidates.


And more broadly he has scarcely made any noises against the sensationalist overreach, exaggeration and conspiracy, the promotion of nativist identitarianism, Putinist/Assadist apologetics, the love for Assange and Wikileaks, and contempt for the post-WW2 liberal international order found on Alt-Lite/Alt-Right friendly outlets Breitbart, Rebel Media, Infowars, Sputnik/RT, and other characters in those circles who grew in prominence alongside Trump and Le Pen’s campaigns.

For example on a topic such as Sweden, whilst Murray correctly notes “there is no doubt” it is “exaggerated by some people”. Unlike another critic of mass immigration Tino Sanandaji, who manages to be more balanced and calls out the “cartoonish exaggerations” often seen on the above websites which strengthens and distinguishes his arguments from more reactionary voices. Instead Murray rarely calls this out and even repeats in his book ludicrously misleading claims from the far-right such as that Sweden has the second highest levels of rape in the world (this overreach being a gift to those who want to brush over the very real problems and indeed one critical review of his book did just that).

This is the main reason these people speak of and perceive Murray the way they do. He does not only bash the Left’s overreach and exaggerations, but will go on their podcasts and shows and bash the Left with them. All the while neglecting to talk of the likes of Trump or Le Pen in any other terms than they’re either the Left’s fault or the Left is criticising them wrongly or are hypocrites.

As Ben Shapiro said on a recent podcast when a fair number of such people “claim you as an ally” then “that does matter” and “it becomes more incumbent on you to disassociate from them, if you want to disassociate from them”. That means calling out and critiquing the Breitbart/Rebel Media/Infowars-sphere and their overreach, conspiracies etc on occasions too.

Murray is an articulate thoughtful speaker does raise interesting points that should be taken seriously. Hopefully after his podcast with Harris he will be more aware though of how “dicey this situation is for him” and whether he is comfortable with the way the far-right view him.

Otherwise it is hard to take the concern he expressed of an empowered far-right sincerely, and it may be worth asking if his views have shifted to now basically align with Dennis Prager, who’s lately been using Murray’s book to advance his lecturing to Never Trump conservatives that there is a “Left-Right battle” that is “existential” for Western civilisation and they must “join the fight” to stop the Left.