[thread] This is a full response to Peter Neumann’s “sorry for the tone BUT apology.” I’ll post it on my website for posterity but share the entire response below. Here is the thread that drove him to write his “apology” in the first place: https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1322467138112815105 /1

@PeterRNeumann, if you wanted to apologise, you should’ve done it last week when I flagged your first expression of Islamophobia and disrespect. That was your window. It closed the moment you disregarded the Islamophobia then, even while so many others pointed it out to you./2

This isn’t about “tone.” Tone is saying “gimme apples” instead of “may I have apples, please.” This is a serious and clear display of Islamophobia. You’ve committed several obvious acts of discrimination and harassment. You tried to get me in trouble with Middlesex. Not "tone."/3

Your window of apology was gone when you decided to pester me about Nice last night. You wanted my thoughts on the tragic events, using them for your own devices. If you read my wall, you would see I share another’s outrage. All deaths of innocents get to me—doesn’t matter who./4

You admit knowing I think the killing is heinous. It was never about my thoughts on Nice then--it was only about you. This is about power. It seems you hated being caught for your Islamophobia when I questioned you last week. It festered and you decided last night to attack./5

You knew—wittingly or not—that I’m under additional scrutiny as a Muslim critical on matters of terrorism. You know about the field of egg shells Muslims must navigate on this subject and, with your power and privilege, you attempted to use this field against me./6

Maybe you were hoping for a wrong step. So you tagged me and my university all night. You needed me to say something—anything—about Nice. Because if I open my mouth, I make myself vulnerable. /7

Unlike you, I have manners. I learned to thrive in the suffocation of my own silence. I take inspiration from Prophet Mohammed (sas) who showed great patience in face of abuse. If a young Muslim academic acted like you did, even for an instant, they would never get hired./8

Your only protection is your privilege. I doubt you’re sorry, I suspect you just hate being caught. You were so blinded by your privilege, you lost all sight of the lines you crossed. I live my life surrounded by lines you can’t even see when your eyes are open./9

We need institutional changes, not performative apologies. You should not even be close to teaching anyone on hate/extremism, let alone anything related to racism (i.e. Far Right)./10

This message is for all the Muslims and minority academics who never get a fair shake with the likes of you—you who were so quick to get me in trouble with my employer. This is against the racism endemic in counter-terrorism and everyone like you. /11

This message is for all the Muslim youth across the West vilified for the things they said but didn’t mean. They never get a chance to apologise. They can never delete their histories. /12

This message is against anyone like you who thinks their performative centrism (“oh I research/hate the Far-Right too”) is an immediate protection against accusations of racism. /13

I will file my complaint and mobilise against your racism and Islamophobia. Kings must give a formal and satisfactorily institutional statement to your abuse. I want to see people like you stripped of the power to abuse Muslims like you did last night. /14

You’re not a colleague. You embody the racism of an alleged post-racial world. You’re everything wrong with counter-terrorism. You’re a walking poster-boy for the racism of liberal centrists. /15

Your racism showed at the slightest provocation. Your insecurity and desperation made you dig your own hole. /end

For future reference, the threads are below. I have also posted this entire piece on my website for posterity. Take an “impartial” view if you like. Neumann knows he crossed a line. He doesn't get to define the line after my thread of him got ±1000 likes
https://www.tarekyounis.org/blog/my-rejection-of-peter-neumanns-apology-the-islamophobia-of-centrists

First: https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1320060180520947715

Second: https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1322467138112815105