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RSSSome post-Question Time clarifications
For those of you who seem intent on getting the wrong end of the stick . . .
By Mehdi Hasan Published 11 February 2011 15:37
I'm not sure which I enjoyed more – appearing on BBC1's Question Time last night or following the Twittersphere's reaction to it as the show went out at 10.35pm. Once again, it seems, I am the Marmite panellist – people either loved me or hated me. (From the tweets, it seems as if the "lovers" edged out the "haters" – phew!)
And I was amused to get – almost at the same time – tweets/texts/emails of the "We're so proud of you for sticking up for Muslims" variety and tweets/texts/emails of the "You're just an evil extremist Islamist" variety; tweets/texts/emails of the "Great to see an articulate lefty" variety and tweets/texts/emails of the "You're an embarrassment to the left" variety. Hilarious.
Question Time is a fun show to do but I'd be the first to admit that it doesn't lend itself to nuance or depth and doesn't allow panellists enough time to unpack their views and opinions in any detail. There's been some confusion on Twitter, and in the texts and emails, about the various views that I expressed and positions that I took – and, of course, some of the confusion is a result of the deliberate misrepresentation and distortion of my views by my critics on the right. So I thought I'd take this opportunity, like last time, to offer some brief post-QT clarifications:
1) On prisoner voting: I don't support giving every prisoner the right to vote but I am opposed to a blanket ban. It might be considered right, proper and proportionate to strip serious criminals – murderers, rapists, paedophiles, armed robbers, etc – of their right to vote but the vast majority of prisoners in this country are not serious criminals. On what basis can it be said to be proportionate to remove the right to vote from a shoplifter or a drug offender or someone who has breached the terms of their Asbo? And this is not some odd or extreme position. Italy, Malta and Poland, for example, ban only those deemed to have committed serious crimes from exercising their right to vote. In Greece, anyone sentenced to life receives a permanent voting ban. Let's be clear: I'm not advocating giving killers such as John Hirst the right to vote in prison – and nor was the European Court, despite Douglas Murray's factually inaccurate claim to the contrary on the programme last night.
2) On multiculturalism: I didn't equate David Cameron with the EDL or "smear" him, as Tim Montgomerie and others have claimed. I pointed out that the English Defence League and the French National Front welcomed Cameron's remarks (and that even the BNP's Nick Griffin, while also welcoming the comments, pointed out the "provocative" timing of the speech in Munich, given events back home in Luton). Am I expected to ignore their comments? As a member of an ethnic minority, should I not be bothered that far-right racists who wish me and my family harm are claiming the PM's speech – or, at the very minimum, the media spin around it – as a vindication of their views/opinions? Am I supposed to pretend that politicians never "dog-whistle"? (For more on my views on Cameron's speech, see my column in this week's New Statesman.)
As for the "forced marriages" issue, which the oddball right-wing blogger "Archbishop Cranmer" seems to have seized upon in his rambling blog post this morning, I didn't say there weren't any forced marriages in the UK or that forced marriages were a "myth" – I pointed out that it was ridiculous for Murray to pretend (a) that multiculturalism is responsible for forced marriages and (b) that I've yet to come across a single politician, community leader or religious spokesman who defends forced marriages or excuses them on the basis of "multiculturalism". It is just ridiculous and dishonest to make such a claim. "Cranmer", who constructed his entire blog post on the basis of something I didn't say, says my "ignorance is astonishing"; I find his inability to understand simple English "astonishing". He really should pay attention.
3) On Egypt: There is no inconsistency to supporting the popular and peaceful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt while opposing the Anglo-American military intervention in Iraq. Arabs should be allowed to choose their own leaders and decide their own destiny; the west should neither prop up the despotic dictators in the Middle East – as we did with Saddam Hussein (until 1990) and Hosni Mubarak (until last week) – nor set out to remove them through "shock and awe" – as we did in Iraq, without UN backing and with bloody consequences.
4) On the "big society": I was amazed that Francis Maude could pretend that the draconian cuts to spending on charities and voluntary groups could be avoided if councils reduced their "costs" and "overheads". Conservative ministers have made some pretty disingenuous claims in recent weeks but this one takes the biscuit. The fact is that councils, which are having to make unprecedented and front-loaded cuts to their budgets of roughly 27 per cent over the next four years, "made savings of more than £3n between 2005 and 2008 and a further £1.7bn in 2008-2009. In 2009-2010 councils made efficiency savings of more than £4.8m every day." As David Cameron himself admitted, in opposition (on 8 September 2009): "Local government is officially the most efficient part of the public sector." He added: "Councils achieve well in excess of the sector's spending review targets, beating central government savings by a country mile." And much ink has been spilled in the tabloid press about "fat-cat" local council bosses but a "reduction in the chief executive pay bill of 50 per cent would only yield 0.35 per cent of the savings needed to fill the £6.5bn funding gap for 2011-2012, and equates to only 0.05 per cent of total employee expenditure". Bad luck, Francis.
Tags: Prison big society Egypt Multiculturalism David Cameron BNP media BBC
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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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207 comments
As for Arabs, they have been killing each other for thousands of years just like every other race on the planet. Remember the War crimes that Turkey commited in WW1. Anyhow like you I am going off topic.
Davin keiy manager of dvd files (*.vob) to mp4 files mac
Thanks for this post a lot, Mehdi!
The discussed questions are really a burning issue for nowadays!
You are really doing a great job!
Nicole Brandt, creator of flv to mp4 converter
God your an egotist Hasan. It was great viewing to see your rediculous views destroyed by Murray last night.
Cranmer is spot on you debated like a mooody teenager, whilst in contrast Murray was calm, thoughtful and clear.
Buckskins mi amico!
Why bother giving Douglas Murray his say? We already know what he's going to say before he even says it. He's so predictable and transparent.
"How sweet. Am touched I have such signifcance in your life."
Yes, people like you have ruined a program I used to enjoy. Sadly, Question Time has become a tax funded mouthpiece for the far left.
YUK!
Mehdi Hasan came across as very angry and bitter. If he needs to educate people as I do feel he has a lot of good to say, he needs to convey these in a better manner, as his angry little "Tin Hitler" turns people off and causes peoples feelings to rise. He is also navie to ignore the feelings of other British people. The Irish were treated awful, and the Scots before them and to think that religion is not connected to culture and is not linked to terrorism then he is a fool and never understood sectaisim in Ireland and Scotland.
Keith M:
I think your demographic is sufficiently influential in both the media and Westminster.
Can you imagine what the love child of Mehdi Hasan and Shami Chakrabati would be like. Sorry, I shouldn't have put that horrible thought in your mind.
Actually doing some research on Mehdi Hasan I find him to be as bad as the BNP. Why did the BBC allow this man on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU&feature=player_em...
Mehdi your a legend m8 you smacked it last night well done.....
Deo Cash, you didnt answer the question as you are a coward. Here are the two questions again. So DEO CASH do you think terrorism in the UK is wrong? Or do you support the deaths of innocent people in name of revenge?
Answer the questions without puting the blame on policy. Its elementary Deo Cash.
Oh another thing, we cant let terrorism dictate anything, because once you open the door to that way of thinking, it will never stop. Terrorism is never a solution, thats elementary DEO CASH. But please just answer the questions.
Cranmer is spot on you debated like a mooody teenager, whilst in contrast Murray was calm, thoughtful and clear.
==============================
I genuinely disagree. I find Murray to be smarmy, arrogant, condesending, full of his own self importance and predictable. Atleast Mehdi has a pulse, whether you agree with his views or not.
I noted you said you were proud of being British, Asian, Muslim
would I be classed as racist if I said I was proud of being British, White and Christen. I don't understand this concept of people calling themselves British Muslim, I wouldn't dream of calling myself a British Catholic. You are either British or not, religion should not come into it.
The ego, it needs controlling.
"The BNP ewelcomed david Cameron's comments"
TheBNP was against the Iraq war so they welcomed Diane abbott and ed Milibands opposition to it, RE: equate Ed miliband with the BNP then,
Mehdi Hasan you are no better than BNP's Nick Griffin. Dont be a snake in the grass, where is your honour? We live in a media world now, I hope your views have changed.
Rob, I think you are in the wrong place.The daily mail pages or the legraph are the best places for you with your opinions. As for Douglas Murray? How anyone can say he is anything other than a pro american slavering right wing neo con who hates anyone thats not white ,christian and wealthy , is beyond me.His hypocrisy on Egypt was staggering.
Fraziel, people do not change their convections so easily, but I hope you are right about Mehdis, but I have seen enough hate in my life to recognise in him. As for Arabs, they have been killing each other for thousands of years just like every other race on the planet. Remember the War crimes that Turkey commited in WW1. Anyhow like you I am going off topic.
Dominic,
If no one cares, why reply to my posts?
I would have been quite happy with just one comment.
@ kate
'I don't understand this concept of people calling themselves British Muslim, I wouldn't dream of calling myself a British Catholic. You are either British or not, religion should not come into it.'
And there's the rub right there Kate. Some people define themselves by their religion. Never a healthy sign, and certainly not one in my opinion allows clear sighted political views.
So, Andrew, you switched off the TV and yet you come here to read Mehdi's column and keep pressing f5 to read the comments, too.
Some kind of internal conflict going on?
I must have watched a different Question time ,when Murray mentioned forced marriages as a bad thing, i didn't here him say they were as a result of multicultrualism
A very good question Kate. I doubt he would have the courage to answer that. In my case I guess I would be British, Celtic, Scottish, protestant christen, good looking, rugby fan. I dont see the need for giving reason why I am different from people and to create a group I should be put in. I think saying British is short and sweet and gives us a common goal to unit behind.
Peter,
I saw his performance on the Question Time website.
I didn't come on here to read Mehdis column, I came on here to tell him that I don't appreciate his style. An opinion echoed by many I speak to.
Is there a problem with that?
Make sure you all watch Despatches tomorrow night on Channel 4 at 8pm for an insight into the real Islam that Mehdi and his mates don't want you to know about.
He'll already be working on an article white-washing the disturbing but wholly unsurprising revelations, no doubt.
Maybe Channel 4 should put a hidden camera into Mehdi's office...or perhaps they already have!
Mehdi Hasan what a pathetic wriggler!
Yes you did deny that there are forced marriages in the UK, you liar.
But of course now you've been bombarded with the facts you're wriggling all over the show.
The facts, loser...
From The Guardian :
"3,000 women a year forced into marriage" > http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/08/religion
From The Telegraph :
"Up to 8,000 forced marriages reported in England last year"
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5710243..."
Likewise, The Independent :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/forced-marria...
Mehdi Hasan - the man who says one thing on the BBC then starts wriggling ehre denying he said what he said, which was....
"Sorry, how many people have forced marriages in this country!!!? And show me which cultural group defends forced marriages... I've yet to come across a single one!!!"
Bla Bla Bla - what a loser. Pathetic.
Hasan - you've been busted.
Mehdi- I'm sorry I spelt your name wrong. I didn't mean any disrespect.
Many apologises!
Andrew is really a fan!
Mehdi Hasan was his usual charmless obnoxious self, what amazes me me is that people come on here and congradulate the bloke. You can guarantee that for nearly every subject raised he starts bellowing like a wounded Elephant!
He doesn't seem to realise that if you don't show respect to other people they won't show it to you.
He and Jacqui Smith had totally lost the argument about the deficit at the end of the programme and yet the bloggers on here say they won it amazing. He also lost the arguement about forced marriages.
Before other posters start screaming about the audience, I tried along with quite few other people I know to get on the show. It seems if you are a Liberal Democrat they are not interested in having you in the audience. If you are concerned about the selling of England's Forests forget it you are not going on.
Time for the vast majority of you to get your heads out of the sand. Laurie Penny should replace this chippy sad bloke!
Hasan on youtube with his 'liberal' views on cattle and kaffirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU
Where does the sing-song patronizing twat speak come from?
Mehdi, you were outstanding amd courageous in confronting Murray from the Centre of Social Division in his habitual fabrications and distortions about Islamist practice. He and Melanie Phillips serve the Zioinst agenda and should have no place in British public discussion. In other words, in seeking to discredit Islam and Muslims, attention is diverted from the Zionist land grab in Palestine and from the illegal and vicious slaughter of Muslims by Christian fundamentalists. The victims are Muslims, but they carry the blame. Mehdi, you must continue to expose these frauds as passionately and as relentlessly as possible.
'Andrew - you switched off the TV but managed to find time to stop by my blog and leave a comment? Aw. How sweet. Am touched I have such signifcance in your life'
Mehdi, comments such as these make you out to be a bit of an ass. Have some dignity in your rebuttals or else your opinions are devalued beyond any credability.
And no, I'm not a member or supporter of the EDL.
You can almost taste Mehdi's inferiority complex.
Fraziel; Mehdi Hasan hates anyone who is not Asian and Muslim. They are both as bad as each other.
Mehdi, I hate to break this to you but Douglas Murray wiped the floor with you. The only thing he didn't do was expose you for being an Islamist nutter.
As long as my comments keep bringing you back here, Des Demona, I'll keep making 'em :-)
Andrew thinks Mehdi is great!
from me to to you!
As an NS subscriber I wasn't at all surprised by how bad Hasan was on QT - after all, I've read his columns. The so-called politics commentator chose this week to write about - surprise, surprise - Islam. The last time he wrote anything resembling a politics column, instead of using a secular, progressive magazine to promote his religion, he told us that divisions over control orders would create ructions for the coalition. Of course they didn't. Hasan was just wrong - not for the for first or last time. Why did the NS let James MacIntyre go (he was good) and keep Hasan. (For the record I am not some Harry's Place type obsessive here _ I was against the Iraq war. Much as I like Islamism, I don't believe it poses an existential threat to British society; indeed, I believe any terrorist threat posed by Islamist extremists to be considerably less than that of Irish terrorism in the 70s and 80s).
I thought you were great. It is good to have a left winger who gives better than he gets from the rightists who appear on QT. It drives them mad to have their assertions and unexamined convictions/prejudices challenged and exposed.
At one point I thought Dougie Murray was going to burst into tears because you showed him to be a fantasist.
@ Mehdi
Dammit. Can't argue with that.
Keep on keeping on Mehdi lad, you are one of the few who takes these neo liberal maniacs on. White middle aged Christian scousers are right behind you, I speak for all of us.
Slip - not Freudian, I swear; just useless typing - I meant to write "much as I dislike Islamism"!
You were rubbish. You were loud, rude, obnoxious, inconsiderate, unpalatable and generally wrong.
But pay no attention to me - I'm just another nasty Tory.
Deo Cash you come across as hot headed, bitter and twisted. We all have views that are strong but we need to control them. Many people are born in this country and do not like it and move to other countries because of better weather like OZ or spain etc. This was meant to be about being British. When I last checked Glasgow was still part of Britain. From this I see you have opened the racesist door, but that I am not surprised. However you didnt seem to criticise in my opinion, as you dont give answers to your solutions, as remember Iraq was not a democracy, but it might have a chance of being one now. You can bring up Blair and Bush who are both gone, and I can bring up Highland clearances etc as reasons why we should hate and commit acts of terror. Where does it stop? We need to move forward and treat all as equals and stop bringing up that past as an excuse for hatred. We should learn from our history. On your question of state-sponsored terrorism, I dont support the use of British army getting used as a weapon to gain oil. I hate it and thats why I voted for a party that did not support this. However we need to repect our armed forces and try to end this needless bloodshed quickly. Moving out now would cause more harm than good as shown in northern ireland history. But we must never give a reason why terrorism happens, because once you go down that path other groups will spring up with causes that are just as important to them.
But DEO CASH I am glad your against innocent British deaths, but this blog was about being British and the questions that came up and I couldnt help but feel that some people like your self had some other agenda. Remember innocent Muslims died due to acts of terror on British soil. And I am sure they are many different faiths in Iraq who have suffered and died. So instead of making this about faith lets both agree to many innocent people died in Iraq. Lets keep it simple, maybe that way people will understand better. It shouldnt matter what colour or what faith or what sex a person is, they are all human and deserve freedom and the right to live unharmed.
I saw for the first time Murray being careful with his words, You was brilliant, precise to the point, it was probally the only question time I had seen Islamicphobia being challenged and losing the its ground.I prey that Allah SW gives you the strengh to fight for the truth as falsehood always perishers
Well done Mehdi, at least you make the effort to support your claims.
Although I don't always agree with you, I appreciate the passion and the delivery that you bring to the debates on question time, and that you only use condescending smackdowns on such abortions as Douglas Murray.
Also, if you keep annoying the knuckle-draggers who unaccountably waste their days coming on the NS website to jizz right-wing blather all over the place, then more power to you!
Last night QT i feel is a turning point for this Tory government. When Francis Maude started the usual tory song of "You are Responsible" to Labour the crowd turned on him. I think people are sick of this Tory song and unless they come up with some thing more than this they are headed for oblivion once again
I think you are not left wing, you have your own agenda that is fed with hate and you play the race card. Thankgod they are people who spot you for what you are. And your views on "forced marriages" on your blog are very different to the views you shared on QT. Did the BBC edit what you said? Did they try to smeer you? You are like Nick Griffen you are racecist or maybe you just have strong views that can be easily misunderstood. But your hatred is clear, thats not passion, thats destruction I see.
@Andrew
You are someone who claims you couldn't watch BBCQT because of his mannerisms, but then admitted you watched it later on the BBC website.
You use the term "mouthpiece for the far left" despite the amount of anti-Labour rhetoric (rather like Mr Montgomerie - is it possible you're a mouthpiece of the right?)
And now you're complaining people are telling you what they think of you - by pointing out you're here to tell Mehdi what you think of him.
My friend, right or left, you're a hypocrite, a liar and a numptey. That's one thing people of all political persuasions will be hard pressed to deny.