Egyptian “blogger” Alaa Abd El-Fattah has issued something of an apology after his arrival in the United Kingdom sparked major controversy in a case that strikes to the very heart of state failure in Westminster.
There are growing calls on the government to strip the only recently conferred British citizenship from Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a prominent figure in the Egyptian Revolution during the Arab Spring which brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in 2012. El-Fattah has been jailed in his native country for many years until this past week when he was released to the United Kingdom.
Several British governments both of the so-called Conservative and Labour parties had lobbied hard for El-Fattah’s release for several years. This has included giving him that British citizenship under allegedly unusual circumstances to bypass the regular checks and processes, although both parties now incredibly claim to have had no knowledge of El-Fattah’s apparently extremist writings until now.
This claim of ignorance by the British government is despite El-Fattah being known for being a blogger, his writings being freely available, and them having even seen him having a nomination for a prominent European Union humanitarian prize rescinded, a controversy that was reported in the mainstream media at the time. Individual Members of Parliament have also spoken out to excuse themselves on having previously campaigned in favour of El-Fattah, arguing they should be excused as they didn’t really know who the man was and were too incurious to bother trying to find out.
Now facing becoming just as unwelcome in Britain as he was in his native Egypt, El-Fattah has engaged in an act of damage control, publishing what has been called an apology for his “shocking and hurtful” writings, which amid others included a great many calls to violence and crude insults against the country he has now turned to for shelter.
Indeed, the so-called apology, as it is, contained as many accusations as it did expressions of remorse, pointing the fingers at others for “using” his own words against him, “twisting” them out of meaning, and for “bad faith” takes.
El-Fattah proclaimed his Egyptian activism for religious freedom, anti-antisemitism, and LGBT rights but did not specifically recant his calling Britons duplicitous “dogs and monkeys”, instead offering a general apology. Saying having his own writings discussed had “shaken” him, El-Fattah stated: “Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.”
The letter essentially echoed similar remarks made by El-Fattah in 2014 when he had his humanitarian prize nomination rescinded and he claimed his writings were taken out of context and that he’d been victim of an Israeli conspiracy. At that time he’d explained his call to kill Israelis had been an in-joke between friends that the public couldn’t understand.
Fresh social media activity unearthed by the Daily Telegraph newspaper also brings into question just how sincere El-Fattah’s public apology this week was, and how deep his commitment to religious freedom may be. Per the report, after publishing the apology piece, El-Fattah’s official Facebook account ‘liked’ a post stating he was the subject of a “Zionist campaign”.
Pressure on Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over his warm welcome to El-Fattah has grown quickly, including from within his own party. Brexit leader Nigel Farage, riffing off online commentary comparing the British state’s open-armed embrace of El-Fattah while it arrests and jails Britons for social media posts, stated he’d reported El-Fattah to counter terrorism police and had submitted a formal letter to the government calling on it to rescind his citizenship.
Mr Farage highlighted notorious elements of El-Fattah’s writings and called the Prime Minister’s attempt to claim he had no idea that man he championed held such views an admission of ineptitude. He wrote: “It should go without saying that anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr elFattah should not be allowed into the UK. As Home Secretary, it is within your power to revoke his citizenship and order his deportation. I strongly urge you to do so.”
Conservative politician Robert Jenrick, who served in the Conservative Party government that gave El-Fattah citizenship but who now professes to be an immigration hardliner said the Egyptian is an “extremist” and called for him to be deported immediately. Also comparing El-Fattah’s red carpet treatment with others arrested over social media posts, Jenrick said: “It tells you everything you need to know about our broken British state… he should not have been a British citizen at all. It shames me that the last government agreed to grant him a passport, the logic of which is hard to comprehend.”
The Conservative shadow cabinet member said: “The Prime Minister should start by withdrawing his welcome and unalloyed praise for El Fattah. I would go further. Admit that this has been a massive failure of the British state from start to finish. This man’s citizenship should be revoked and he should be deported. That would send a signal that Britain is not prepared to be a joke country any longer.”
It is stated by The Daily Telegraph that the government is not minded to try and rescind El-Fattah’s UK passport, as no matter how freely and easily it was given, “officials” think any attempt to take it away would be struck down in the courts. A spokesman for the Prime Minister is said to have remarked: “Of course we welcome the return of a British citizen unfairly detained abroad.”
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