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RSSThe truth about Andrew Gilligan
The Telegraph man’s links to Iran.
By Mehdi Hasan Published 22 November 2010 13:20
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About Mehdi Hasan
Mehdi Hasan is a contributing writer for the New Statesman and the co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader. He was the New Statesman's senior editor (politics) from 2009-12.
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113 comments
Gilligan is an opportunist..out for money or fame where ever he can get it. Hes picked up the lutufr issue to gain himslef publicity and yes MONEY.
He has even less credibiltiy than he did before.
Medhi you are brilliant, it was going to take someoen very clver to out him.
Please read the above article and take some notes as that may help you to understand it well.
Andrew Gilligan is becoming worse than Nick Cohen in his obsession with 'Islamists'. What a tedious, despicable little man.
We all know that Lutfur Rahman is being baited first and foremost for refusing to be a New Labour yes man - he has a very good record on the issue of social housing allocation for example, and the neo-liberals simply cannot stomach this. And so he is called an 'extremist'.
Newsflash to Andrew Gilligan & cronies, from someone based in Tower Hamlets: no one is buying into your attempts to smear and race-bait.
And to anyone bleating on that the turnout for this election was not huge - the turnout for the Mayoral election in three neighbouring boroughs was exactly the same.
Shame on all those councillors and Mayors refusing to work with Lutfur Rahman. You are demonstrating your absolute contempt for democracy, and in light of this contempt, may you be voted out at the earliest possible opportunity.
Hans, I have never come across a self-Castrated friendless rightwing loser admirer of Gilligan who hangs about in NS or shall i say leftist blogosphere! Help him wash his dirty laundry, you might get an Iranian shilling or two he earnt from Jew haters like PressTV?! Better still, you should move to Israel so they can wipe you off the world map too when their nukes hit your thick skull?!
Lol@Andrew sockpuppeting! Hahaha. Thanks Mehdi for the free entertainment!
Luftur Rahman leads a non-political vested interest group in Tower Hamlets.
If he was a politician he would be a dirty one.
Mehdi Hasan's profile of him was more a hagiography. Plain embarrassing.
Hasan says: "Gilligan says he has not worked for PressTV since the election"...
He then goes on: "The YouTube clip is from a PressTV show broadcast earlier this year 'before the election'.
My only comment is that Hasan is trying to implicate Gilligan in having broken his word and broadcasting for this channel AFTER the election yet he presents no evidence apart from a clip from a date that undermines his case whilst it appears to support Gilligan's.
I cannot comment on Gilligan's reasons for having done so in the past. Hasan quotes Gilligan as arguing that at the time he viewed PressTV as an agreeable instrument of social change.
All I can and will say is that I have dealt with a few Iranian men and their word is worth nothing (I exclude the 2nd class women from this). I trust them about as much as I do North Koreans.
I will add that if Hasan were an Iranian reporter living and working in that undemocratic theocracy then he would probably be in prison given his rude, arrogant and outspoken nature.
Either that of course or he would be a willing mouthpiece for that loathsome Quasi-fascist State. I guess the jury's out on that one.
"maybe medhi hassan should stop taking sideswipes at mr gilligan and start attacking his fellow extremist muslim brothers who frankly are just the heirs to the gestapo and hitlers nazis,"
Medhi will not be doing that because he is one.
Check out the links and find out for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31LOVIR-M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhD3TysRc&feature=related
I don't believe in conspiracies however, a deeply reactionary theocratic regime which is opposed to democracy and human rights is employing a journalist to besmirch the name of a muslim who participates in a democratic process.
It doesn't make sense until you consider what is the message that theocratic regime is trying to send, that democracy is unislamic and those who participate in democractic process are un-islamic. Precisely the same message as al-majouroun is promoting.
The truth about Andrew Gilligan
Posted by Mehdi Hasan
The truth is that any alien culture particularly a barbaric one is bound to raise concerns, Hasan goes on like the one in question is wonderful and only spreads light and accord but we all know that's a lie.
Who Are the Real McCarthyites?
http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/3618
@TerryWhite
The sanctimony in your post is quite staggering! Your assertion that by clarifying (twice) that Gilligan worked for Press TV before the election somehow means Hassan is implicating that he worked for the same organisation after the election is bizarre.
As is your quantum leap to the idea that Hassan would either be in prison (for being rude) or part of the regime (no reason given) were he Iranian is, at best, completely pointless.
The difference between Mehdi and Gilligan is that former wasn't a paid employee of a nation whose deny the Holocaust and export anti-western rhetoric, where the latter hypocrite had been even less than a year ago and even after the election crackdown and violation of civil rights. Shame on The Telegraph for still employing Gilligan.
Standing up for our Great Prime Minister ever, David Cameron!!!!!
Ed Miliband is a total flop and is the 'Nowhere-man of British Politics!' Steady Eddie try harder!!!
quick suggestion: mehdi can you not do an undercover report (like Dispatches) on that zionest Andrew Gilligan on his obsession with the muslims! especially in tower hamlets where ther was a lot of injustice and mr gilligan still supported that!
Everyone here should write to The Telegraph to object to Mr Gilligan being employed there as he has previously worked for a Holocaust denying and anti-semitic global media outlet and of course a nation that violates human rights. Gilligan should do the honourable thing and resign from The Telegraph altogether.
I hate to break the group love-in - but Gilligan's response makes interesting reading. It also makes the perfectly logical deduction that Medhi has been making up quotations.
Once you have all taken your heads out of each other's arses - feel free to comment.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100064715/mehdi-hasan-n...
IS he really? What a conniving man! Thanks Mehdi for your wonderful researched and answer to this devious man. Some time ago I wrote some where that, do we not have any one capable to answer this devious conniving man? I did not have wait long thanks Mehdi want to see more of fact base report form you.
Iran hangs woman accused of murdering love rival.
So much for human rights Livingstone !
In other words, Medhi's admits that his interview was a mock "interview" and shameless promotion for an Islamist politician who is currently under investigation.
You have also incorrectly quoted Andrew Gilligan as he has explained on his Blog:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100064715/mehdi-hasan-n...
What Medhi really thinks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPeyxJ7vGU&feature=related
Extremely well done to Andrew for his relentless campaign to root out all Islamic extremists in public life and their idiot apologists who constantly make excuses for the inexcusable.
Gilligan is a bumptious upstart who sensationalises sensitive events. He is not the friend of Jews Muslims or Ken Livingstone.
Gilligan is a true Brit emitating those who thought or still think everything is fair in war, or in other words when you can 'gain something' in return. His prejudice does not help the community and serves nothing good. In the name of free expression and rogue journalism he force feed information to those who may have not steped outside the border of the UK mainland and who think UK is the best place in the world, and white Brits are the superior cast/group/class etc. They and Andrew need some long term serious therapy and then good history lesson from someone like Andrew Marr or David Stucky!
I say...Back Boris 2012!!!!
Indeed Paul Henry, it is interesting to see what Hasan's real personality is like. But more than that, he just cannot engage in discussions based on logic, resorting here instead to blatant fabrication of 'sources'. Anyone failing to see the nonsense in this article just isn't reading it properly: in saying "... Gilligan is among the highest-paid [...] employee (sic) at the channel" note the present tense, suggesting Gilligan is still an employee when that is demonstrably false. Not that I care either way who either of these individuals receives money from, but as the basis for a charge of hypocrisy it is staggeringly inept.
Moderate muslims and unicorns.
Tell us Mehdi Hasan do you still think that non-muslims are animals ?
The Labour party will pay a very high price for their ongoing relationship with Islamists.
Andrew Gilligan, what a twat.
Stuart, at least my brain aint so empty that i have to rely on Hans Castrated or ur unknown idol Abbas Try getting a free brain transplant in Kenya, heard giraffes there have better views!
Stuart, at least my brain aint empty that i have to rely on Hans Castrated or ur unknown idol Abbas Try getting a free brain transplant in Kenya, heard giraffes there have better views!
Mehdi, I'm still angry about your speech that has been watched on youtube by many people regarding your views on non-muslims. I think you should have been made to apologise for your racist remarks. I think that you can't be trusted with anything you say and you have ruined your credibility. This is a shame as you came across very well on Question Time. Shame you have hidden bigoted views.
Andrew Gilligan wound me right up as your average and basic mk1 Brit. As if he was taking the piss out of us.
Song, some people would describe it as an oil change gone wrong, but I would not,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcgFP3rR4r8
Gilligan is a Journalist and not the Labour candidate for London mayor in 2012. Ken Livingstone is running for London Mayor in 2012 The anger generated on this forum against Gilligan would be better directed at Livingstone - A presenter of Press TV's Epilogue programme.
@monkeyforsale
@PaulHenry
I see Gilligan's loyal fans on here defending him?
Gilligan is a hypocrite. Look clearly at what he says (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100064715/mehdi-hasan-n...). He says he left Press TV because he was against the Islamic Republic yet he still went back just before the elections to do 2 part series??? HYPOCRACY AT ITS BEST. The man lies through his teeth when he says he has principles!
Stuart, Note the difference 'so'.
Julia Harris
3 hours ago
- Mehdi - Alluh Akhbar Lutfur, lets feed these infidel scum a line about how liberal we are etc etc, they lap it up on the NS, we like gays blah blah blah, we know they are destined to hell...Laughs
Lutfur - Assalam Alakham Mehdim, I didn't realise how accommodating Lefty's really are, I still cant believe my luck, at how they are such willing dupes for our Jihadi spin.
Mehdi - Lutfur, I've been saying one thing on NS and something else to our brothers without question, its beautiful.
This is a sham interview by a Mehdi who again has shown himself to be an Apologist for the Islamic Supremacists...
We know what side of the fence Mehdi is on....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31LOVIR-M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhD3TysRc&feature=related
Quick question Mehdi. Will you be condemning Ken Livingstone for hosting a chatshow on Press TV, and taking the Iranian shilling?
http://www.spittoon.org/archives/8230
No? Given that you are a propandaist for any politician, particularly Ken, who is an apologist for Islamic political extremism, I didn't think so either.
Stuart Eels, Note the difference 'so'.
Fighting4EdMiliband,
Such profound thoughts from an infertile mind.
Mehdi Hasan the moderate muslim. The mask of tolerance slips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPeyxJ7vGU&feature=related
@Jake
Are you an Islamist or a faux-Liberal/useful idiot?
@failing4DeadMilliband
"The difference between Mehdi and Gilligan is that former wasn't a paid employee of a nation whose deny the Holocaust and export anti-western rhetoric"
Whereas Medhi is one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31LOVIR-M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhD3TysRc&feature=related
@Julia
"Mehdi, I'm still angry about your speech that has been watched on youtube by many people regarding your views on non-muslims. I think you should have been made to apologise for your racist remarks. I think that you can't be trusted with anything you say and you have ruined your credibility. This is a shame as you came across very well on Question Time. Shame you have hidden bigoted views."
With the obvious connivance of the BBC, Channel 4 and other media outlets.
Every time he appears on TV or anywhere else always ask yourself: "why is that David Dimbleby on Question Time, Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight or the other interviewers and journalists never take Medhi to task on the views he has openly expressed?
Do remember all of this and complain to the TV producer or News Editor in question.
BTW, isn't a mock interview of the type described by Medhi something that would be expected from Hello magazine? Even the Metro manages to make the quick celebrity interview into something that is vaguely challenging.
@Sven King
"This is a sham interview by a Mehdi who again has shown himself to be an Apologist for the Islamic Supremacists...
We know what side of the fence Mehdi is on....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31LOVIR-M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhD3TysRc&feature=related "
He is not the only one and they are the ones that we need to specifically target.
The Islamists (those who have a fundamentalist or literalist reading of their religion to the point that they think it is perfectly OK to stone Homosexuals and adulterers to death, murder Jews, treat women like seconds class citizens, believe in Forced Marriages, Female Genital Mutilation, Honour Killings, etc, etc, etc) are their own worst enemy and alienate virtually anyone who are aware of them.
It is their fellow travelers, the idiot apologists and those who try to accommodate theocratic fascism that need to be identified, exposed, investigated and systematically driven out of all public life.
Andrew Gilligan is performing this function perfectly well as any good journalist would do (just as John Ware is going to do tonight on Panorama about Islamic faith schools) by exposing the likes of Medhi to the full scrutiny of the wider media.
Now we are all aware of Medhi and know what he really is and what he actually represents - now the it is down to the rest of us to ensure that he and all others with Islamist sympathies mean that he hounded out of the public spot light for good.
The Truth About Mehdi Hasan
By the kaffir known as Hans Castorp
His shrill, evasive and hypocritical reply to Andrew Gilligan demonstrates that he prizes his personal vanity over professional dignity, prefers stridency to accuracy, and values intramural fighting with another journalist more than the good standing of his newspaper.
I'm saddened that the New Statesman has come to stoop so low.
Mehdi, the bell tolls for thee.
"Better still, you should move to Israel so they can wipe you off the world map too when their nukes hit your thick skull?!"
Tween punctuation and a genocidal, holcaustal, imagination: Nice combination you have there.
All these ad hominem arguments are getting really irritating. I am very concerned that between all the journalists bickering over who is righteous, that Tower Hamlets is in dire straits. Either it has a mayor of dubious repute, or a mayor who has been horribly maligned. While that is disputed, what is not in dispute is that trust has disappeared between politicians and the community along racial lines. Put aside this pointless bicker an try and give us, your readers, some calm facts, points of view, and suggestions - and most of all, don't confuse one with the other!
Hasan writes quite well although I disagree with him 51% of the time. He is an asset to the NS as a beacon for the strident Muslims although I disagree with them 89% of the time. Stridency creates its own problems and I speak as a secular Hindu.
The interview with Lutfur was seen as pathetic because Luftur wasn't confronted with any of the evidence gathered by Channel 4 about his dodgy links, especially links with some very anti-secular people.
And it didn't talk about the video evidence of Lutfur’s vote-rigging in Tower Hamlets.
Basically, it was cheek kissing whitewash job. Shameful and shoddy.
"Do you believe in a secular Britain?
I do. I live in a society based on a clear division of powers between the church and the state. Yes, I absolutely believe in a secular society."
Actually, Rahman's words sound even more sinister when you see the full quote. It sounds like he is responding to the question by saying he believes there is a secular Britain now, not necessarily that he thinks there should be one in future.
You have my admiration Mehdi for putting up with the trolling from the likes of Hans and co. on this thread. Really good article and it's so important for you to keep up the good fight against the likes of Gilligan in this world. Ignore the duplicitous criticism and keep at it.
"Gilligan's hidden for too long behind the omerta that journalists don't go after other journalists"
Mehdi Hasan, a journalist - now that is funny. Everyone sees Hasan for what he is - a sympathiser and mouthpiece for Islamists, trying to pass off his Islamist views under the guise of the politics of the left
You've been rumbled a long time ago, Mehdi. We know where your sympathies lay.....