Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s case has exposed the hollow priorities of our political and cultural elites
On Boxing Day the Prime Minister displayed more of his spectacular political judgement, tweeting that he is “delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief… Alaa’s case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office”. In the next couple of hours Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary and David Lammy, the Justice Secretary posted their comments, both saying they were “delighted” and Lammy adding that he “first met Alaa’s family in Opposition, and I committed to them that I would do everything I could to advocate for his return”. The BBC also celebrated the news, describing El Fattah as a “British-Egyptian writer and pro-democracy activist”.
El-Fattah’s entry to the UK was the final step in a campaign which has been running for years. He has been imprisoned in Egypt under Mubarak, under the military council which replaced him, under Mansour, and most recently under current president Sisi.
El Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is a British citizen because she was born here, and she has long campaigned for her son. It seems that in 2022 he was granted British citizenship on this basis, despite being a prisoner in Egypt at the time.
Since then, there has been a concerted campaign for El Fattah to be freed and brought to Britain, including an implausible claim that his mother spent “11 months on hunger strike”. The ridiculous emotional manipulation was amplified without challenge by organisations like Amnesty, the BBC, Families for Freedom and English PEN.
Countless celebrities joined the campaign, including Bill Nighy, Carey Mulligan, Dame Judi Dench, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Gaiman, Joseph Fiennes, Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry, as did politicians. Last year 107 MPs and Peers, from every party other than Reform, wrote to David Lammy, urging him to “use the full range of diplomatic tools at your disposal” to bring El Fattah to Britain. Perhaps all this noise explains why Keir Starmer made this matter a “top priority” for his government, and why he was so “delighted” to announce the Egyptian being brought “back” to a country he appears to have never resided in.
This feel-good, Christmas story of a brave British dissident writer saved from an Egyptian jail collapsed within hours, as people on social media read El-Fattah’s actual writing. What they found was a litany of hate.
In past tweets on his account @alee, El Fattah had expressed hate for Jews — “I…support killing zionists even civilians” — hate for Americans — “I rejoice when US soldiers are killed” — and hate for white people — “fucking hate white people, they don’t understand sharing or community. a blight on the earth they are. good thing they stopped breeding”.
But above all of these, he seems to have particularly loathed England, writing that “all the evils of the earth stem from England” and that England is “the nation responsible for the greatest number of massacres in human history”. Even El Fattah’s commitment to democracy seems dubious. He wrote “democracy is the breeding ground for small-minded people. Haven’t you seen how elections work in American and England?”
Much of the press response has focused on El Fattah’s ravings about “zionists”, perhaps because that feels safer and easier. His loathing for white people is perhaps too much of a leap for many who can only conceive of white people as oppressors.
So why did the British state, its tame charities, along with so many politicians and celebrities, work so hard to secure the arrival in Britain of a man who clearly loathes us? Much of the regime is committed to a vindictive oikophobia which holds that British people, and Europeans more generally, must atone for their alleged past and present sins.
But the blithe expressions of delight expressed by three Secretaries of State reveal something deeper about the regime. However malevolent they are, they are twice as stupid. They genuinely thought this was news to celebrate. These people have spent years not bothering or not caring to check El Fattah’s social media, an exercise which took people on Twitter less than a day. 107 parliamentarians and scores of celebrities either thought these opinions were fine, or, far more likely, didn’t bother to do the most cursory due diligence before supporting a random Egyptian.
In 2022, James Cleverly, then Foreign Secretary, tweeted that “Last night I spoke to the sisters of @Alaa. We will continue to work tirelessly for his release”. Presumably Cleverly didn’t bother to do the most cursory due diligence on El Fattah. Indeed, from that post we can see that Cleverly knew El Fattah’s twitter account, but didn’t bother to have it checked.
Similarly, in September this year, the Tory Shadow National Security Minister, Alicia Kearns tweeted that “His release is long overdue, and I pay tribute to his mother and sister who have fought non-stop to get him free. Now he must be returned home to his child in Brighton, who needs their daddy home”. Today she has acknowledged that she “wasn’t aware of his vile tweets”.
These are not serious people. They love the idea of freeing a “dissident”, a “writer”, a “democracy activist” from the clutches of an evil dictator. The Human Rights cult has occupied their minds, and so when someone tells them they should care deeply about this man who seemingly hates England and the English they nod along, brains empty, mouths full of platitudes.
Even El Fattah’s grant of citizenship is the fault of Human Rights. He was made administratively British under section 4c of the 1981 British Nationality Act, on the basis that his mother was British. Until 2018 he would have been subject to a “good character test”, one element of which asks whether someone has “engaged in unacceptable behaviour”, including expressing views which could “incite, justify or glorify terrorist violence” and “foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK”. According to the guidelines, someone who has engaged in such behaviour “will normally be refused British citizenship”. It is very hard to see how El Fattah would have passed such a test.
Fortunately for him, in 2017 the Supreme Court decided that such a requirement was incompatible with ECHR articles 8 (family life) and 14 (non-discrimination). As a result in 2018 the Home Office, then led by Amber Rudd, issued a Remedial Order” which removed the good character requirement for applications like El Fattah’s.
We have chosen to bind ourselves with particular laws which are entirely harmful to our interests
In many ways this whole tale reveals exactly what is wrong with the UK. We have chosen to bind ourselves with particular laws which are entirely harmful to our interests. These laws say that we must not require people to have good character before becoming British citizens, so the system scraps the good character requirement. Changing the Human Rights Act, or enacting primary legislation to retain the good character requirement is beyond the imagination of our political class. And so the country is harmed, and a man who has expressed vehement anti-white, anti-English and anti-Jewish sentiments is welcome here. The nation is harmed, but the laws have been followed.
If I ever am tempted to blackpill, to embrace despair, I comfort myself by remembering that we are blessed with enemies of astonishing stupidity. It’s time to rid ourselves of this political class, these incompetent people who believe that laws are geography, and who will bring our nation to ruin.
