Gosar rallies for controversial U.K. activist

Controversy has followed U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar from the United Kingdom, where he attended a rally last week in support of an anti-Muslim activist who was jailed in that country for disrupting a trial.

At the same time President Donald Trump was in that country to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Gosar, an Arizona Republican, took to a London stage to urge the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Yaxley-Lennon, who is better known there as Tommy Robinson, was quickly ordered jailed in May for 13 months after being arrested for broadcasting on Facebook about a trial that English judges ordered subject to secrecy.

It was his second conviction for contempt of court stemming from flouting court-imposed privacy orders in two years.

Robinson’s arrest sparked protests in England and on social media, something that Gosar joined during his trip last week.

Robinson is the co-founder of the English Defence League, a group that stands against “expressions of Islaminspired intolerance up and down and across Britain.”

Earlier this year, Robinson was permanently banned from Twitter for violating rules governing “hateful conduct.” He has also worked to establish another anti-Islamic organization in the U.K.

In a tweet earlier this week, Gosar said, “I object to the suppression of the truth. I think the injustice of not being able to bring light to the situation dissolves all equitable application of the rule of law.”

On Wednesday, the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil-rights and advocacy organization, condemned Gosar for aligning himself with Robinson.

“It is inexplicable for a sitting U.S. congressman to speak at, let alone attend a rally for someone responsible for spreading as much hate and bigotry as Tommy Robinson,” Imraan Siddiqi, the group’s executive director, said. “We condemn the congressman’s choice to stand with far-right Islamophobic conspiracy theorists, and call on elected officials from both parties to speak out on this matter.”

Gosar wasn’t the only American conservative taking up for Robinson last week. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former political strategist, also called for Robinson’s release from jail.