Mehdi Hasan

Posted 14 Jul 2012 by Walaa Idris

Mehdi Hasan

My politics and Mehdi Hasan’s politics are poles apart and it’s highly unlikely for us to agree on much when it comes to our political views. However, we are similar in that we are both human, British, Muslim and belong to an ethnic group plus of course enjoy our politics and unafraid to speak our mind.

But it is the first one that matters to me. As members of the human race there are certain regards most of us instinctively share and in many cases they happen effortlessly. Concerns such as caring, to not deliberately cause pain or harm to others – treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves, feel empathy for others sorrows are universally shared basic human traits. To show our humanity, we needn’t go around attempting to eliminate all pains and sufferings, we just need to have a heart. And recognize that most people are basically good, lucky and blessed; they mostly hope, pray or simply want what’s good for themselves and their loved ones. Most people spend their lives bettering what they can about them and their surroundings or keeping themselves to their selves.

A simple and easy concept, it is what primarily differentiate us from other living species. We humans feel and empathize. Other beings feel too, however, we are not yet sure if they have empathy. For example a lion in the jungles of Africa does not see a baby deer walking by and go ‘look cute little Bambi seems lost; let me see if I can help him find his way. The lion sees Bambi and only one thought occupies him, lunch.’ That is what I see when people violently attach each other for the sake of attacking, it feels predatory.

This blogpost is dedicated to Mehdi Hasan, his family and friends. Because yesterday I came across his Guardian’s article and I found myself very depressed reading it. I knew from Twitter he gets attacked for his views and comments. And could see some were ignorant, uniformed, and had nothing to do with the topics, they were purely personal. I know from personal experience these kind of assaults can affect his family and loved ones, but I never realized the extent of the hurt they caused. That was shocking. I felt like reaching out and wrapping my arms around both Mehdi and his wife with a great big bear hug. I mean what else can you do – you can either get angry and more or less act like the offenders or ride the wave and acknowledge, what was done is wrong, hope and trust that people are better than that and can do better.

This kind of bullying – and it is a form of bullying, happens in all circles to different people for different reasons. Once a person becomes a public figure abuse, praise and indifference will become a part of their life. Most public figures know it and work with it but it doesn’t make it right or easy to deal with and I hope it shouldn’t silence, deter or stop new talents from coming forward and raising their head above the parapet.

I might not see eye to eye with Mehdi, but I think he is a formidable commentator, journalist and writer and that is a talent we should admire and respect not try to silence.

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Learn from the past, work in the present and prepare for the future!

Posted 19 Jun 2012 by Walaa Idris

Many Tories and non – Tories alike, frequently ask, why don’t ethnic minorities especially those of African origin feel at home in our party, the Conservative Party? The party of family values, community support, unity, aspiration, self-reliance, enterprising, personal responsibility and private charity, because these are the same values most members of these groups and their families subscribe to and believe in.

The Answer is simple and far more straightforward than Enoch Powell’s Ghost or Conservatives not relating to immigrants and people of colour or low representation of black and ethnic minorities in the party. All these reasons are excuses deployed by the left to undermined conservatism and buy the affection of that segment of our society. Nonetheless, they are not the reasons why many blacks and ethnics are not Tories.

Whenever I speak with members of this group they never deny for one second that the Conservative party is their natural home yet they complain that they never feel at home. Not because we are too posh, too white, too rich or too educated, but because we are not consistent enough.

According to them, we have conversations about issues that matter to them but they come far and few between. We also open dialogues and prioritize topics but soon let them drop to a lower priority. In other words, we need to be consistent, and in some cases even persistent. Our courting needs to go beyond the ice breaker and the meet & greet, it needs to move towards building a more cohesive foundation and a sound relationship.

We must also remember, this is an intelligent and resilient group, and although they require consistency they don’t need to be handled with kid gloves or to be treated differently. Contrary to what the left tries to make them out to be, they don’t need special measures, handouts and exclusivity, all that does is undermined their integrity and diminish them. What they truly crave is to be heard and listened to, included in the process and allowed to become truly equal – no special selections or preferred treatment – just equal!

As for what some Tories did and said in the past – that is just that, the past, what counts is what everyone is doing and saying today and planning to do in the future. There is no need for any apologies, the past is history, our history and we should all learn from it, good or bad.

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All the public wants is a reduced deficit, job creation and the prospect of a good life!

Posted 6 May 2012 by Walaa Idris

I confess I am a big ‘C’ Conservative and those who know me will confirm it. Liberal on almost all issues that pertain to personal freedom, because I deeply believe people are the best stewards of what is best for them; small non- meddling governments are the most effective leaderships. Personal responsibility is the cornerstone of a good society and should be learnt at home, ideally from two parents, private charity is just that, private, and no body’s business. I am also a cheerleader for low taxes, controlled, monitored and managed immigration, harsh prison sentences (time should mean time) and an encourager of enterprising – and of course I strongly believe small businesses are the backbone of a successful economy.

After the 2010 elections – the idea of forming a coalition with anyone deeply pained and disturbed me – but all other alternatives were simply selfish and short sighted substitutes. Forming a coalition was the best outcome for the nation and to lay down the foundations for a fast recovery and a better future. For the two opponents to put to one side their ideological differences in order to sort out the mess (yes, it was one great big mess Labour left behind) was the honorable thing to do.

That feeling of selfless unity for the greater good is what convinced me and many on both parties to put to one side our differences and work as a team. It was never going to be easy and we all understood the seriousness of the task at hand.

Another thing those who know me will attest to is that I don’t like to publicly criticize my own and nothing can be more public than a blog.

However, both sides of the coalition need to take a step back and take a good hard self-examining look, both need to use the midterm results to ask themselves one crucial question – what is it the public wants us to do and what worries and concerns them the most?

It will surprise both parties to lean that the public’s disillusion mainly comes from not understanding clearly what the government is doing. For instance, this budget, at the heart of it is not a bad budget but it should have been explained better – and there is still room to do so. Non-politicos don’t care one bit if MPs are elected via AV or FPTP, just as they don’t see the point of an elected House of Lords. What the public wants is a clear, uncomplicated explanation of how they can keep more of their money, how the tax breaks will help their lot, how public services reforms will not have adverse impacts on their lives and if they work to the bone, will they live their winter years decently? They also don’t understand things like why can’t we send Abu Qatada back home when other EU member nations, in similar situation, were able to before, how come his human rights trump Christopher Tappin’s, the 65 year old retired businessman extradited to the US. Why is it, we seem to always be so righteous when it comes to others but never fight as hard for our own!?

As for Conservatives, the larger and senior partner in this coalition and the party of business, the party of sound and better management, of cutting taxes, reducing waste and creating a fertile and welcoming environment for enterprising from all over the globe – the grown up party. The public sees us as the firm party and expects us to be firm.

Historically Labour made the mess and the Conservatives marched in and cleaned it all up. They, the public, two years on are not interested to hear about who made what mess (they know who did what, they were there, remember) what they need is to be reassured by this government that it means business and that it has the remedies to the economic problem and the confidence to deliver them.

Government is a business, and like all businesses it needs to be fluid, flexible and have a clear goal, many of the things being carried out are in the coalition agreement, but two years on the extend of the damage inherited must be a lot clearer now than when the coalition agreement was drawn up. It is therefore, the responsibility of the two partners to revisit that agreement and readjust it to fit the public’s mood and interests, not the parties’ political ambitions.

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Time to stop crying and start fighting!

Posted 27 Nov 2011 by Walaa Idris

Reading newspapers and media headlines you’ll be forgiven to feel this is it. This is the end of everything as we know it. They are full of doom and gloom, leave no hope, offer no way-out, in captions after caption we are made to feel this is it, it’s all over!!

Really!! You mean to tell me our current economic crisis is worse than the 20th Century Depression, WWI and WWII – worse than the Black Death and all the other wars man raged on his fellow man throughout history.

If this economic downturn is going to finish us off, what does it say about us, our tenacity and our self-worth?

Times are hard, actually they are very hard, I feel and see it around me daily, and I happen to live in an affluent part of the capital. So I can imagine how hard it must be in less well-off parts of the country. I’m neither blinkered nor naïve and do know there are those who even before the economic downturn, life for them is an ongoing daily struggle. There are those who find making ends meet a continuing challenge and with the current high inflation and shrinking incomes meeting daily expenses is impossible for many.

But we cannot be defeatist and give in, we cannot accept its over and surrender – we must draw from whatever gives us hope, strength and resolve to pull together and carry on to ride this tide and come away victorious, because we can and we are worth it.

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Someone needs to tell these women to man up!

Posted 9 Nov 2011 by Walaa Idris

In a few weeks this blog will be two years old. In almost 24 month of regular blogging and over 800 posts I had many readers who agreed with what I wrote and those who robustly disagreed with every word I posted. Thankfully never once I had received a threat or any abuse of the kind Helen Lewis Hasteley, Kate Smurthaite, Eleanor O’Hagan and others received.

However, the kind of person I am, even if I did receive such abuses, I won’t make a song and dance about them! I don’t do victim nor do I feel deserving or needing of any pity or solace and I definitely never see my gender, race or where I came from as an issue or grounds for abuse, ridicule or any special measures for that matter. I was brought up believing “If It’s To Be It’s Up To Me”. Therefore from an early age I stood my ground, fought my own battles and pursuit my dreams and aspirations with gusto and a can do attitude. That’s why wussy people irritate me and I don’t have time for crybabies.

We live in a country of plenty, plenty opportunities, plenty justice, plenty to eat, free education, free healthcare and a great security service dedicated to secure and protected us from any and all dangers foreign and domestic.

In a nutshell we have it all!

Grown respected leading women ranting about cyber bullying is not attractive nor is it a good idea!

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Is Egypt retreating to the dark ages?

Posted 10 Oct 2011 by Walaa Idris

Egypt

Egypt has always been special to me, not because my grandfather on my mother‘s side is half Egyptian, or because Sudan (where I’m originally from) shares many cultural and geographical interests including The Nile, but because many of my beautiful childhood memories involved something Egyptian.

Our home was full of culture and art; my parents loved and appreciated a diverse array of both. As far as I can remember, my first ever vacation out of Sudan was in Cairo, my first live consort with my parents was a recital by the legendary Oum Kalthoum. Besides Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Elvis Presley and Farid Al- Atrash my parents listened to Abdel Halim Hafez who later became my own personal favourite. As a child I idolized Soad Hosny and till today I watch old movies and plays like Raya and Sakina and Shahed mashefsh haga.

Amongst the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, Egypt has historically been the hub of art and literature and the gateway to ancient yet evolving civilizations while at the same time the home and the belly of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is where the movement was born then exported to the rest of the Arab world. However, every Egyptian leader from Nassir to Sadat and later Mubarak has fought secretly and openly to control their spread both nationally and internationally, and succeeded. That is until the removal of the Mubarak regime earlier this year.

That control, although weaker in recent years, has allowed Egyptians from all backgrounds and religions to live, work, and worship peacefully side by side. But once the control was lost, the fundamentalist side of the Muslim Brotherhood became free and sadly according to recent reports from Cairo they were able to cause a rift and have a hand in the recent civil unrest.

For many Egyptians and observers what’s happing is a step backwards.

With the first parliamentary poll due next month, there are huge concerns by many inside and outside Egypt that instead of advancing to build a modern democracy the country is back searching for security and stability and worrying about the powers behind sabotaging their forward progress.

Clearly today’s Egypt is not what I remember – but neither is the Sudan or the Lebanon. The region as a whole is on a backwards journey, from the outside looking in, democracy might look like the answer but as someone from within I think it’s as simple as basic education!

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Vicky Pryce vs. Louise Mensch, will a Tory ever ….!

Posted 1 Oct 2011 by Walaa Idris

Read two pieces in the Guardian today, both history articles, both written by women on women but written by different journalists on different ladies from opposite sides of the political debate. The first interview, by Decca Aitkenhead is with Louise Mensch MP, and the other by Sabine Durrant with Vicky Pryce (the former Mrs. Chris Huhne).

Both ladies (Mensch and Pryce) are very interesting and empowering feminist; they both gave a glimpse into their life and briefly took us though their journey and how they got here today. Besides their dissimilar politics, one is a newlywed who decided to take her second husband’s name – the other is a newly divorcee who kept her first husband’s name, plus Pryce is twenty years Mensch’s senior.

While the focus on Pryce’s article was on a successful strong mother of five who survived two divorces and still powering on and going strong. By the end of the Mensch interview most the attention was on what if any plastic surgery the beautiful Louise had. Not to mention the underhanded gibe at her background and how – writes Aitkenhead – that “….No amount of socially liberal opinions has altered the implacable conviction that the only difference between Mensch and some jobless loser on a council estate is a go-getting attitude. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to her that it’s easy to take risks if you have a safety net, when failure means merely dented pride, not financial ruin”. And conveniently forgetting that some of the biggest successes in our country today are ordinary folks from all walks of life who owe their success to that go- getter attitude Louise talked about! Forgetting the Times Rich List is full of people who started their journey with a dream, a hope and a strong burning desire to succeed and did it! Forgetting with that statement, Decca Aitkenhead has killed hundreds of young dreams!!

My question is – can a Tory ever get a fair and just treatment form the left press; I know I’m not holding my breath?

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My take on the police the rioters and the judiciary!

Posted 16 Aug 2011 by Walaa Idris

In a sentence, our Police are heroes, the rioters are zeros and the courts in some cases need to get real.

In my opinion, we have the best police. They can command respect, maintain order and fully understand the culture of the communities they serve without violence or the use of a fire arm. For someone who lived in Africa where a policeman have the right to slap a member of the public first then asks questions later, and in the US where officers draws their gun at the same time they announce themselves –I never once felt intimidated or in danger around the British Police.

Judging by last weeks riots control, the speed by which they identified offenders and murderers and brought them to justice – it must be said; the police have done an outstanding job and deserve our gratitude and appreciation. But going forward they could do more if they are freed from box ticking and form filling targets, if their hands are untied from political correctness, health and safety and of course if the public and the politicians stopped using them as a grand standing punching bag. We have one of the best police forces respected the world over, we should let them know it and allow them be the best they can.

Looking closely at the riots, it is very clear they were not started by the same peaceful law obeying citizens who marched outside Tottenham Police Station looking for answers form the police. Those who, looted, burned and caused public unrest were hoodlums; un- invested, disconnected and had no interest or cared what happens to anyone beside themselves. But the liberals amongst us will have you believe they are victims of our society, fatalities of bankers’ bounces, politicians misbehaving and the responsibility of everything and everyone but their own families – and because of that we need to understand them and get where they’re coming from as if these thugs even care what anyone thinks of them.

We saw the TV interviews with the looters – not their defenders and those using every iota of oxygen to explain why – but the offenders themselves and they were very clear why they did it. Because they can!

As for the judges who sat all night to pass sentences they deserve our gratitude however and particularly in this occasion, some need to leave their liberal compassion at the door. Because this is an opportunity for them to send a clear and firm message, a chance to set a precedent that on this shores we are tolerant but mean business.

Hearing that an illegal immigrant was given a lighter sentence so he isn’t deported sends the wrong signal. I don’t have the full details and I’m not a legal know it all – but going by what has been reported – in this instance we needed more than ever before to not say we regard the wellbeing of the few at the expense of the many – that’s unfair and all together sends the wrong message!

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Where are the parents?

Posted 9 Aug 2011 by Walaa Idris

London Riots 2011

As a single parent myself, I know first hand how tough and demanding raising a young family while holding down a job and staying normal can be! Thanks heaven that was a long time ago, my girls are now young ladies who I know will grow to be an asset to their communities and our country. Just as my parents taught me personal responsibility and guided me through the tangled maze of life – I am passing the baton to my girls and expect them to do the same.

Raising my girls was at times hard and even painful but it was never a chore or an inconvenience, I planed to have them and knew all too well what I was embarking on when I decided to go it alone. Till this day I know every night where my daughters are, till today I know what they buy and where the money used to buy it came from. I’m still the parent and they are the child and that gives me the finial word just as my mother is still with me!

Watching events unfold and escalate these past three days – seeing those kids running around at all hours of the night until the early hours of the morning, causing millions of pounds worth of damages – one question comes to mind – where are the parents!?

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Why is London under siege!?

Posted 8 Aug 2011 by Walaa Idris

Our great city is under attack for two reasons; the first is obvious and simple to explain. A young man was shot, his community wanted some answers, the police was investigating the causes but was taking too long and the community lost patience waiting. They peacefully tried to show their distress when a rogue element hijacked the peaceful event then started rioting, looting and burring public and private property – Tottenham burned and copycats duplicated the scenes in other parts of the city.

The second reason is disconnect, between the community and its leaders although those same leaders tried all weakened and continued trying today to paint a different picture – but it was their forked divisive tongue that mostly caused the unrest. They are not the only part or group in the country that had to endure the cuts – but they are the only group – out of sheer ignorance and total selfishness who cut their nose to spite their face with their actions.

When the Member of Parliament, David Lammy, warned on his first address to the media that “if the police do not give answers rioting will break out…” he was not acting responsibly – why add wood to the fire!?

When the community leaders and organizers were excusing the unrest as a response to the cuts – that was not a sensible line to take it also added fuel to an already bad situation!

When Ken Livingston and Diane Abbott added their voice to “Because of the Cuts” brigade that too wasn’t helpful and gave an already confused idle bunch an excuse to cause havoc!

Those rioters are not aliens from outer space; they are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of that community. They were teenagers and young adults – no doubt a product of Labour and her failings. A product of thirteen years of dependency and government knows best – thirteen years of easy gains and lack of any personal responsibility. Thirteen years of social engineering and government compartmentalizing – they are criminals who broke into shops, stole goods and money and set buildings on fire – they are criminals not by nature but by design, by the environments they grow in and the society that nurtured them.

During the Tottenham attack Lammy was nowhere in sight – he did not as quickly and swiftly come to the aid of his beloved community, denounce the violence and call for calm and reason. And although he has issued a statement, he did not appear in person until the following afternoon. His condemnation statement came in the aftermath – after the police had controlled the crowds and the fires were put out. It was a strong statement, but it lost it fizz because it came late. Had it come earlier it might not have stopped the riots from happening but it might have reduced them and lessened the damage – but we’ll never know!

Responsibility is a two way street – those in any position of power no matter how large or small owe it to themselves, their post but most of all to their community and the country to always speak responsibly.

Tottenham is responsible for what happened in Tottenham.

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