Raheem Kassam

Raheem Kassam (born 1 August 1986)[1] is a right-wing[2][3][4] British political activist, former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News London, and former chief adviser to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage.[5] Kassam formerly ran in the party's November 2016 leadership election before dropping out of the race on 31 October 2016.[6] He was most recently the global editor-in-chief of Human Events.

Raheem Kassam
Kassam speaking at the 2018 CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland
Born (1986-08-01) 1 August 1986
London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Westminster
Political partyBrexit Party (2019–present)
UK Independence Party (2014–2015, 2016–2019)
Conservative Party (former)

Early life and education

Kassam was born in Hammersmith Hospital, London. His parents were Tanzanian immigrants of Indian origin from Hillingdon, Greater London.[1] He was raised an Ismaili Muslim, but wrote in 2016 that he had not been a practising Muslim for over a decade. Kassam is an atheist, stating that Christopher Hitchens' rejection of religious faith ("religions are versions of the same untruth") inspired him.[7] Kassam was educated at Bishopshalt School, a state comprehensive school in Uxbridge and St Helen's College, Hillingdon, and then studied Politics at the University of Westminster.[8]

Kassam worked for the defunct American financial services firm Lehman Brothers before his career in politics[9]

Career

Kassam was a national executive board member of youth movement Conservative Future and director of campus anti-extremism group Student Rights, and campaigned against the London School of Economics for accepting money from Gaddafi's Libya;[8] the university's director Howard Davies would later resign when new revelations revealed the extent of the institution's relationship with the Gaddafi regime.[10] In a 2011 interview, Kassam named his idols as Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher and Barry Goldwater, and spoke of his admiration for the United States' free markets.[8] He has called his alma mater a "hotbed of radical Islam", citing the fact that Jihadi John was at his campus as evidence.[11]

In 2011, Kassam was employed as campaigns director at Neoconservative foreign policy think-tank, the Henry Jackson Society.[12]

Kassam managed electoral campaigns in the UK and U.S., and was Executive Editor of The Commentator blogging platform, but left the organisation after falling out with the founding editor, Robin Shepherd, who described Kassam as "a danger to British democracy, and the rule of law".[13][1] He has been a member of conservative think tanks such as the Bow Group, the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society, the Gatestone Institute and the Middle East Forum, and was involved in an attempted foundation of the UK version of the Tea Party movement.[14] Kassam was a supporter of the controversial Young Britons' Foundation, described by its founder as a "conservative madrasa" which later shut down due to allegations of misconduct against director Mark Clarke[15][16][17]. He and James Delingpole set up the London edition of the American far-right news outlet Breitbart News.[1] Kassam left Breitbart in May 2018.[18]

In 2018, Kassam joined the Institut des sciences sociales, économiques et politiques (Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences), founded by politicians in the far-right[19] National Front Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Thibaut Monnier, in Lyon, France.[20]

In March 2019, Kassam and lawyer Will Chamberlain purchased Human Events, a conservative American digital-only publication, from Salem Media Group for $300,000.[21][22] Kassam became Global editor-in-chief of Human Events when it was re-launched on May 1.[23] It announced that he was leaving the outlet on 8 August.[24]

In July 2019, the Australian Labor Party called for Kassam to be banned from entering Australia, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator Kristina Keneally said ""We should not allow career bigots — a person who spreads hate speech about Muslims, about women, about gay and lesbian people — to enter our country with the express intent of undermining equity and equality."[25]

In October 2019, Kassam began co-hosting War Room: Impeachment with Steve Bannon a daily radio show and podcast to nudge the White House and its allies into taking a more focused and aggressive posture to counteract the Impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[26]

Political Views

Describing himself as a nationalist[27], Raheem's politics has frequently been described as far-right by mainstream commentators and sources[28][29][30]. Raheem Kassam has also been described by media and academic sources as a figure in the alt-right[31][32][33]. When running for leader in 2016, Kassam supported the repeal of a ban on former members of White nationalist parties, the National Front and British National Party from joining UKIP[34]

Kassam has described Islam as a "fascistic and totalitarian ideology"[35], described the Quran as 'fundamentally evil'[36] and stated that "we are war with Shari'a"[37] and has supported curbing Muslim immigration to the United Kingdom[38]

Kassam's political and media strategies have been floated on U.S far-right "shock and awful" tactics which seen him openly advise UKIP leader Nigel Farage to make controversial remarks against HIV patients in 2015[39][40]. Kassam has been a persistent critic of Labour Party Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, accusing him of turning the city into a "Shithole"[41] and accusing him of having links to terrorism and extremism.[42][43]

UK Independence Party

Following his period with the Conservative Party, Kassam became a UK Independence Party voter in late 2013, joined the party early in the following year, and soon became Nigel Farage's senior adviser.[1]

Leadership candidate

After the resignation of Diane James as UKIP leader in October 2016, Kassam launched a campaign to become the new leader. On announcing his bid, he stated that he wanted to "stop infighting within UKIP", "address the deep cultural and social divides in this country", and "to become the real opposition and put this feckless Labour Party to bed."[44][45] His campaign slogan was "Make UKIP great again".[46][47] In an interview with Evan Davis on the BBC's Newsnight, Kassam announced his intentions to resolve UKIP's "existential crisis" and pledged to increase UKIP's membership to 100,000.[48]

Kassam's activity on social media has attracted negative attention. In June 2016 he posted a tweet (later deleted) suggesting First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon should have her "mouth taped shut. And her legs, so she can't reproduce".[49] After being criticised by the Scottish National Party MP Stewart McDonald on Twitter, Kassam replied that he would not be lectured to by a "National Socialist party".[50] He later apologised.[51][52] He has tweeted in the past that Suzanne Evans, a candidate in the second 2016 UKIP leadership election, should "fuck off for good",[53] and questioned whether Labour MP Angela Eagle attended a "special needs class".[1][50][51]

After Evans said on The Andrew Marr Show that her "far right" and "toxic" rival would take the party away from the interests of ordinary people, Kassam questioned Evans' leadership capabilities and asserted that she had made "smears" against him.[49][53] Farage repudiated Evans' comments about Kassam shortly afterwards.[54][55]

At the launch of his leadership campaign, Kassam called for a national referendum on the right of women in the UK to wear the niqāb, claimed then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump does not hold anti-Muslim opinions, and cast doubt on the multiple claims of sexual assault made against Trump.[52] He also labelled his movement as Faragist and quipped that he was the "Faragest of the Faragists".[56][57] Kassam gained the personal support of Arron Banks, the principal funder of UKIP.[58]

Kassam "suspended", or withdrew, from the leadership contest on 31 October 2016, a few hours before nominations closed.[6][59] Having concluded that he had only a slight chance of winning, citing insufficient funds, he criticised the media attention he received and was critical of what he claimed was media intimidation of his parents.[60] He also questioned the fairness of a UKIP ballot.[61] "When Times journalists show up at my elderly parents' house, intimidating them, I draw the line," he said.[62]

In December 2016, Kassam admitted to editing his own Wikipedia page, a practice which is in violation of Wikipedia rules.[63]

Later developments

In his October 2016 Newsnight interview, Kassam suggested that Donald Trump would be a better President of the United States than Hillary Clinton.[48] A few days after the result of the American presidential election was announced, Kassam accompanied Farage when the former UKIP-leader was the first British politician to meet President-elect Trump, at Trump Tower.[64]

In January 2018, Kassam received media coverage for stating during a Sky News interview that London had become "a shithole" under Mayor Sadiq Khan, intentionally mirroring similar alleged comments U.S. President Trump made on immigration shortly before.[65][66][67]

Publications

On 14 August 2017, Kassam published his book No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You with Nigel Farage writing the foreword to the book.[68] On 19 April 2018, Kassam self-published Enoch Was Right: 'Rivers of Blood' 50 Years On, in which he argues that politician Enoch Powell's anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech has been realised.[69]

References
  1. Bush, Stephen (25 October 2016). "The rise of Raheem Kassam, Nigel Farage's back-room boy". New Statesman. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  2. McGowan, Michael (2019-07-31). "Labor wants Australia to refuse visa for 'career bigot' Raheem Kassam". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  3. "Today programme gives far-right Raheem Kassam a platform to defend Tommy Robinson". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  4. Beattie, Jason (2016-10-23). "UKIP's bitter leadership war just got even nastier..." mirror. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  5. "UKIP's Steven Woolfe and Raheem Kassam to stand for leadership". BBC News. 5 October 2016.
  6. Stone, Jon (31 October 2016). "Raheem Kassam pulls out of Ukip leadership race". The Independent. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  7. Kassam, Raheem (16 December 2011). "Thank you, Mr. Hitchens". The Commentator.
  8. "Rainbow Tories: The geek, the fundraiser and the Tanzanian immigrant's son". The Evening Standard. 6 October 2011.
  9. "BBC Three - Free Speech, Series 2 - Raheem Kassam". BBC. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  10. Vasagar, Jeevan; Syal, Rajeev (2011-03-03). "LSE head quits over Gaddafi scandal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  11. "Raheem Kassam: Meet The Right-Wing Ex-Muslim Who Wants To Save UKIP". BuzzFeed.
  12. "Rainbow Tories: The geek, the fundraiser and the Tanzanian immigrant's". Evening Standard. 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  13. Waterson, Jim. "Raheem Kassam: Meet The Right-Wing Ex-Muslim Who Wants To Save UKIP". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  14. "Raheem Kassam". BBC Three. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  15. "Raheem Kassam: If you want to see what a Conservative conference should really look like, you should have been in Washington last week". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  16. Barnes, Hannah (2015-12-12). "Tory 'madrasa': Facts and fiction". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  17. "Radicalised Tories ready to take on Labour's big guns". the Guardian. 2010-03-06. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  18. Gray, Rosie (May 23, 2018). "Breitbart's Raheem Kassam Is Out". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  19. Bisserbe, Stacy Meichtry and Noemie (2015-08-20). "Le Pen Family Drama Splits France's Far Right National Front Party". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  20. Catherine Lagrange (22 June 2018). "L'école de Marion Maréchal: du business et de la culture (très à droite)". lepoint.fr (in French). Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  21. Wemple, Erik (1 March 2019). "Breitbart alum to resuscitate Human Events". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  22. Manfredi, Lucas. "Why conservative censorship on social media has become an all-out assault". Fox News. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  23. Guaglione, Sara (20 March 2019). "Salem Media Group Acquires Conservative Site PJ Media". MediaPost. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  24. Events, Human (August 9, 2019). "Human Events Announces Changes to Leadership Team". Human Events.
  25. "Labor calls for right-winger Raheem Kassam to be banned from entering country - ABC News". www.abc.net.au. 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  26. Peters, Jeremy W. (2019-10-24). "Steve Bannon Has Some Impeachment Advice for Trump". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  27. Raheem Kassam (25 April 2020). "Raheem Kassam: Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  28. Ross, Kaz (2019-08-01). "Who is Raheem Kassam? Calls to ban the far-right speaker blur line between free speech and hate speech". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  29. Dearden, Lizzie (2020-08-02). "Tommy Robinson: BBC accused of giving former Breitbart London editor 'platform to spout bile'". The Independent. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  30. Hyge, Mariana (2020-08-02). "The dark stars of the far right compete to bask in the glory of Tommy Robinson". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  31. Pertwee, Ed (2020-04-17). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 0 (0): 1–20. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. ISSN 0141-9870.
  32. "Are these the faces of London's young 'alt-right'?". Evening Standard. 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  33. Kesvani, Hussein (2016-12-16). "What Happened When I Trolled an Alt Right Hero". Vice. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  34. Ross, Kaz (2019-08-01). "Who is Raheem Kassam? Calls to ban the far-right speaker blur line between free speech and hate speech". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  35. McDonald, Karl (2018-08-02). "Raheem Kassam calls Islam a 'fascistic ideology' on BBC as he defends Tommy Robinson's EDL threat". Inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  36. Ross, Kaz (2019-08-01). "Who is Raheem Kassam? Calls to ban the far-right speaker blur line between free speech and hate speech". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  37. "FACTSHEET: RAHEEM KASSAM: Are these the faces of London's young 'alt-right'?". Bridge: A Georgetown University Initiative. 2019-03-25. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  38. Ross, Kaz (2019-08-01). "Who is Raheem Kassam? Calls to ban the far-right speaker blur line between free speech and hate speech". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  39. Nick Lowles (25 April 2020). "Breitbart A rightwing plot to shape Europe's future" (PDF). Hope Not Hate (published 25 March 2017). Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  40. Goodin, Matthew (November 2015). UKIP, Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 241. ISBN 9780191054808.
  41. Jacobs, Ben (2019-01-13). "After Bannon: the new faces of the hard right". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  42. Raheem Kassam (24 January 2018). "Raheem Kassam: Facebook". Facebook (published 25 January 2018). Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  43. Raheem Kassam (8 September 2018). "Raheem Kassam: Facebook". Facebook (published 25 January 2018). Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  44. "Raheem Kassam on UKIP fighting and leadership contest". BBC News. 7 October 2016.
  45. "Steven Woolfe and Raheem Kassam throw hats in ring for UKip leadership". The Herald. 5 October 2016.
  46. Mason, Rowena (5 October 2016). "Ukip leadership contest: five likely contenders to succeed Diane James". The Guardian.
  47. "Ukip leadership candidate Steven Woolfe quits party following conference altercation furore". Chester and District Standard. 18 October 2016.
  48. "Raheem Kassam: UKIP is in an 'existential crisis'". BBC News. 18 October 2016.
  49. Merrick, Rob (24 October 2016). "Ukip at war again as two more leadership candidates put themselves forward". The Independent. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  50. Allegretti, Aubrey (23 October 2016). "Ukip Leadership Contender Raheem Kassam Sparks Outrage For History Of Controversial Twitter Posts". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  51. McGrath, Hannah; Fisher, Lucy (25 October 2016). "Abusive tweets were a silly joke, says Ukip contender". The Times. Retrieved 28 October 2016. (subscription required)
  52. Walker, Peter (28 October 2016). "Ukip leadership candidate defends Trump and calls for niqab referendum". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  53. Bennett, Asa (24 October 2016). "Nigel Farage is Ukip's Tony Blair. After historic success, it is tearing itself apart over his legacy". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  54. Keste, Georgie (24 October 2016). "Ukip hopeful too right wing, says rival". The Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016. (subscription required)
  55. Black, Will (25 October 2016). "If Raheem Kassam Is The Best UKIP Can Offer, It's Screwed". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  56. "'Farage-ist' Raheem Kassam launches UKIP leadership bid". BBC News. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  57. "Ukip Leadership Contender Launches Bid As 'Faragest Of The Faragists'". The Huffington Post. 28 October 2016.
  58. Kenber, Billy; Fisher, Lucy (29 October 2016). "Ukip contender is quick to show his bitter credentials". The Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016. (subscription required)
  59. Fisher, Lucy (31 October 2016). "Ukip leadership contender launches bid on Friday — quits on Monday". The Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016. (subscription required)
  60. Metro.co.uk, Richard Hartley-Parkinson for (2016-10-31). "Raheem Kassam pulls out of leadership race for Ukip". Metro. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  61. Mason, Rowena (31 October 2016). "Raheem Kassam pulls out of Ukip leadership contest". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  62. Hurfurt, Jake; Pells, Rachael (1 November 2016). "Oxford University students called 'inbred' by ex-Ukip leadership candidate". The Independent. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  63. "'Donald Trump on steroids': The controversial rise of Farage favourite and Breitbart boss Raheem Kassam". The Independent. 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  64. "Nigel Farage becomes first UK politician to meet Donald Trump". Sky News. 13 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  65. "Raheem Kassam Blasts Sky News, Sadiq Khan Over 'Shithole London'".
  66. Jacobs, Ben (January 13, 2018). "After Bannon: the new faces of the hard right". The Guardian. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  67. Jonathan, Robert (January 14, 2018). "London Is A 'S***hole,' Breitbart London Editor Raheem Kassam Claims [Video]". Inquisitr. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  68. Kassam, Raheem (2017). No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781621576808.
  69. Kassam, Raheem (2018). Enoch Was Right: 'Rivers of Blood' 50 Years On. Self-published. ISBN 978-1980818823.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.