To think that Kier Starmer shouldn't be welcoming extremists into Britain?

[Twiglets1]

Reported in The Telegraph today that Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed an alleged Islamist extremist, who labelled British people “dogs and monkeys” and called for Zionists to be killed, into the UK.

The Prime Minister said he was “delighted” that Alaa Abd el-Fattah had arrived from Egypt on Friday evening after a travel ban imposed by Cairo was lifted following lobbying by ministers.

Mr Abd el-Fattah, an activist with dual British-Egyptian citizenship, previously said that it was heroic to kill Zionists “including civilians”. He urged Londoners to burn Downing Street, told his supporters to kill police and said he hated white people.

Ministers are facing calls to revoke his British citizenship, which he was granted in 2021 while imprisoned in Egypt, where campaigners described him as a “prisoner of conscience”.

Sir Keir’s tweet yesterday said how “delighted” he was that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in this country. Does that seem a reasonable stance to take for someone who has claimed at the same time to be committed to "eradicating antisemitism in the UK"?

It doesn't operate when making an application under the rule he did, that's the whole point.

British citizenship law used to discriminate against women and unmarried fathers, and they couldn't pass their citizenship on in the same way as married fathers. That's now been fixed, but it wasn't retrospective. So El Fattah wasn't British until 2021 and had to make an application, but if it had been his dad not his mum who was the British one he'd have been a citizen at birth. It would've been a right not a gift.

The whole reason they got rid of the good character test for these applications is because it did still treat the children of women and unmarried male British citizens worse than those of married British fathers. It was discriminatory.

I do get that, and generally discrimination against women in nationality laws is a bad thing. However in this instance, maybe it's the lesser of two evils.

Hansard again (promise this will be my last quote from there for now), debate about COP27, 9th Nov 2022.

..Keir Starmer, then leader of the opposition, responding to the Prime Minister of the day, Rishi Sunak...

"...may I start by raising the case of Alla Abd el-Fattah"......"he is a British citizen jailed for the crime of posting on social media and has been imprisoned in Egypt ...: (my emphasis).

I believe under the current government in the UK we've had a few "jailed for the crime of posting on social media".....

Nobody in the UK has ever been "jailed for the crime of posting on social media". A few people have been convicted of offences such as sending malicious communications or inciting racial hatred.

...and I look forward to Mr el-Fattah being charged with the offences you mention.

Tbf people can see who ends up in jail and what has been posted.

Thank you for explaining it. The remedial order in 2019 allowed this to happen, and was more permissive than it needed to be. There seems to have been a real naivety. It should bother us all that this man who sounded utterly contemptuous of British people and was an effective anti semite received an automatic right to be here.

Discrimination in terms of granting nationality is okay in my view. You should be very picky who gets these rights because revoking nationality is nearly impossible. It really is up to governments what rules they want. We are in my view too liberal on it, but this is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. His views are repellent, but as a British citizen he will have every right to express them.

It would be interesting to know why this case was considered so significant by so many. There are British citizens across the world who do far less well in getting their cases resolved

Doubtless if it is in the public interest to prosecute someone for tweets posted 10-15 years ago then that is what will happen.

A handful of people were quite rightly jailed after posting inflammatory messages during the riots in 2024.

It’s not just that.

For me it's shone a light on the campaign to get this man to UK. Why was the MP John McDonnell having constituents raise this man's plight with him? Why were Olivia Colman and the other celebs so concerned about him?
Why was he successive Government's "top priority"?
I saw a Labour peer post that, until now, nobody had heard of him. I certainly hadn't. So why were so many people hell bent on getting him here?

Agreed 💯

Got any evidence? I Googled & found Lucy Connolly & 3-4 others but that was all. It's a myth that people in the UK are being jailed for expressing opinions on social media.

It's insane that there was once a law that allowed this man to get British citizenship on the grounds that his mum was born here while his nan was briefly a student here. Absolutely insane. I'm sure him and his (suspiciously well fed-looking for a hunger striker of several months) will be pulling their best compo faces for a Guardian sob story within a few weeks.

Exactly this. And why when he was delayed on and questions raised in Parliament, did not one person bring up his online threats at all?

He’s certainly lost no time in catching up on his social media and doing a bit of FB…

Is this man grateful to be here; is he down at the Job Centre looking to support his family? Is he heck.

I want the Govt and these loudmouth celebrities to tell us exactly why this man’s presence in the UK is a good thing. If he can exercise his freedom of speech to say he hates white people, wants to kill Jews, attack police officers’ families, attack Downing Street… then, ok, gloves off - let anyone post anything without politicians and said celebrities kicking off because it falls foul of their rather twisted priorities.

Debated

Are you ok with Lucy Connelly being jailed and this guy welcomed? If so, why?

As for thoughts on who gets arrested even the police are now pushing back on what is seen to be within their remit tg, so there is an issue.

I still haven't come across his post thanking successive governments for making him their top priority. I see he's pleased to be reunited with his family but i have yet to see his thanks for all the efforts this gov has made to get him 'back'.

You'll wait a loooong time for his 'thanks'.

Are you selective about inflammatory posts, depending on who posts them? As you seem certain the riot posts were inflammatory, I take it you hold this racist to the same standard.

I would say his political priorities put thanking British Parliament at the bottom of the pile. As is often the case, when was the public asked what they wanted in terms of who is welcome on British soil?

Looks like we've found one of the 11% of apologists on your poll @Twiglets1

it's because - as in so many walks of life - it's still a case of not what you know but who you know...

This is an intellectually elite family.

His aunt Ahdaf Soueif is a best selling novelist (I have read her most well known book), with connections to the a broad network of left wing media types:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahdaf_Soueif

Another successful author Arundati Roy dedicated an award to El Fattah.

His Aunt has a PHD in Linguistics from Lancaster University. His mother was a mathematics professor at Cairo University and her parents in turn were University Professors.

The entire family are or were political activists.

Essentially the communist hard left branch of Islam, similar to the sort of people that helped the Islamic fundamentalists take control of Iran, but found themselves first against the wall very soon afterward.

I am sure that they have done a very good job of milking their network of celebrity contacts and using that to leverage Govt.

El Fattah is even involved with Zohran Mandani the new mayor of New York.

Such us life.

@AlecTrevelyan006 - very interesting.

I was just reading an interesting article about women in Iran at the time of the revolution. Many conservative women were alarmed at the pace of change and growth of western culture, and so supported the fundamentalists, but on the understanding they had a seat at the table afterwards. Well, we saw how that panned out…

Thanks for that @AlecTrevelyan006. I suppose because they were 'political activists' from an intellectually elite family, all these celebs and politicians couldn't fall over themselves quick enough to look virtuous by lending their support.