Unite the Kingdom Rally: For God and Country
Yesterday, I was one of several hundred thousand participants in Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom Rally. By some accounts, our numbers were over a million; whatever the actual count, I can assure you with complete confidence that we were not the hateful, hate-filled, violence-fomenting rabble that Kier Starmer accused us of being.
As usual, the truth is the opposite of what the Left claims. And as usual with patriotic rallies aimed to preserve the culture, character and security of a nation, the atmosphere was one of love: love of God and country, love of one another, love of one’s compatriots and love of generations to come, concern for which was a key element of this event.
If “right wing extremist” means a patriot desiring nothing more than the sovereignty and safety of one’s nation, then yes, that’s what filled the streets of London during the mile-long march and many-hour long rally at Parliament Square under the gaze of Winston Churchill and in the shadow of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. A more magnificent location would be hard to imagine, let alone one more apt to the event itself: courage, law and order, and Christianity.
I was joined by Peter Mcilvenna, AFA Board Member and Fellow who has been writing and speaking about Islam for over a dozen years, as well as a surprising number of people I’ve gotten to know over the years and many others I look forward to working with in the future.
The invasion – or is it conquest?
It’s become a truism that Great Britain has fallen to a massive invasion by those who seek to undermine and destroy it; this invasion and conquest have been facilitated by too many elites in government, law enforcement and the media. In other words, the “red-green alliance” – the complicity between the left and the Islamic invaders – is played out daily in the UK, with the increasing influence, if not dominance, of Islam apparent in every aspect of life. One of the primary aspects of this rally was giving voice to those who lost sisters, daughters and other loved ones to the barbaric violence at the hands of these invaders. Seeing the anguished mothers, hearing their stories, brought home not only the lies of Starmer but also the nightmare consequences of his — and his party’s — siding with those who intimidate and commit violence rather than with the victims; with the destroyers of the nation rather than the citizens he is charged with protecting. His virtue-signaling comment: “…this Labour Government will block Far Right agitators from travelling to Britain for that event because we will not allow people to come to the UK and…spread hate on our streets” is, as always, exactly the opposite of the truth in every word and syllable.
When the leadership has it so inverted and sides with invaders over citizens, denouncing the patriots of this nation, it certainly looks like conquest. One doesn’t need “kinetic war” to lose one’s country to a foe, and it’s increasingly difficult to argue that Great Britain has not been conquered. On the other hand, rallies such as this one, with demonstrations of a fervent commitment to waging cultural and political war to defend against this conquest, and with massive courage, defiance and civilizational confidence on full display, one can only hope that this spirit proves contagious.
Of course, this is not new: we see the identical situation in the US but they are far further along in the systematizing of the destruction. It’s become a refrain — and is the reason we at AFA host speakers such as Geert Wilders, Tommy Robinson, Peter Mcilvenna and others — that we have no need to guess what the playbook is of Islamic incursions into our country as we literally can see it played out throughout Europe. This rally was a massive showcase of exactly that, offering a direct warning that we must heed. At the same time, however, the event itself demonstrated the will to fight back, in itself inspiring.
Christianity, front and center
At this very moment as I write this, there is a massive ceremony on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” focused on rededicating the nation to God. As is increasingly apparent, it is precisely this commitment to our biblical foundations that is the sine qua non of restoring OUR nation to its goodness and greatness, to our strengths and freedoms. The same commitment was a dominant theme of the UTK rally, the entire event shot through with invocations of Christianity and biblical values. The rally featured pastors, a bishop, hymns and other Christian-based music, a constant exhortation of the crucial nature of Christianity to the UK and the extent to which Islam, with the complicit Left, is taking a massive battering ram to it. Crosses were ubiquitous, waved, worn and tattooed. In addition, however, Israeli flags were also waved high, and love of Israel was a repeated theme.
Looking to America
Nothing surprised me more than the extent to which America was hailed, praised, cited, quoted, harked to. Even our 250th was noted, a tad ironic for a “Unite the Kingdom” rally but clearly they have forgiven us. Donald Trump was invoked repeatedly in countless contexts, notably his being a strong advocate for sovereignty and for “Making America Great Again” which, of course, inspired “Make the United Kingdom Great Again” and the like. As incredible as it seems, it has taken Donald Trump to remind people that they have a right to be proud of their nation and the confidence he has revived in us has clearly taken comparable root over on this side of the pond. I must say, being surrounded by “Brits” all chanting “USA, USA” was bizarre but heady.
In addition, Charlie Kirk was mentioned several times and there were two deeply moving tributes to him: a short video as well as a piece played by a solo acoustic guitarist.
The people of Iran
Tommy had made a great effort to include Iranians in the event and in the sea of Union Jacks and other British flags were numerous Iranian flags and signs in support of a free Iran. There were also signs advocating for the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. It was noted that those “Persians” who had come to the UK were increasingly alarmed at the extent to which their new, “freer” home was increasingly resembling the one they’d fled and they were eager to join in the effort to restore the UK as well as to be proponents of a “restoration” of their own country.
This is real
Many among the AFA community have been warning of the dangers of Islam for decades – they speak from a position of expertise, of studying what has happened elsewhere, of perhaps having experienced the loss of their homeland to this conquest and are in the US as a result. Until recently, though, in the US it was sort of an abstraction, or something irrelevant as it’s “not here.” We have increasing pockets, however, that are, in fact, “here” and the invasion is taking root. But in England, our Mother Country, the birthplace of so much that is our foundation, this incursion is pervasive so consequently it’s not theoretical anymore, it’s not abstract, it’s not distant. It is HERE, right now, and when your Prime Minister sides with the invaders and not you, it’s a pivotal moment and one that cannot, will not be ignored.
What can we learn?
The commitment by Islamists to global domination is real, and we see it being played out, step by step. Of course, the election of Mamdani revealed how vulnerable we are, and where there is one Mamdani, we know many more are in the wings. We can call it Sharia, the backbone of Islam, or we can just be clear that it is Islam itself that has totalitarian designs on the globe, on you and on me. Either way, where we see it, we must stop it. There are countless metaphors for destructive forces that must be dealt with at the earliest possible moment or they become too entrenched, too intractable to recover from. Cancer, sepsis, mold, even vines, have those characteristics. So do Leftism, communism, Islamism, globalism. They find a way in, to metastasize, to destroy. We’ve been working with Frank Gaffney and others on a massive Ban Sharia campaign (BanSharia.com) and the Sharia Free congressional caucus is making headway on this existential issue. In this way, we are far, far ahead of the UK which is only now beginning to have politicians with sufficient courage to speak on this issue.
What can we learn? To never lose our civilizational confidence and our reliance on and dedication to the Bible which forms the load-bearing walls of Western Civilization. To understand the nature of the threats and to recognize that our freedoms, sovereignty, strength and prosperity are at a very real risk. To take heart from others with courage, and find courage in oneself to stand for what we know is good and right and true.
I have written before about being miracle-worthy. That is, to me, the key element: as long as God sees this nation as worthy of miracles, He will continue to perform them on behalf of America, a nation born of miracles. The more of us whose actions contribute to His seeing us as miracle-worthy, the more, so I believe, His calculus will weigh in our favor.
