Frankly Speaking: Has Britain lost its tolerance?

Special Frankly Speaking: Has Britain lost its tolerance?
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Updated 22 September 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Has Britain lost its tolerance?

Frankly Speaking: Has Britain lost its tolerance?
  • UK must tackle racists and people who take law into their hands head on, says former Tory chancellor and author of ‘The Boy from Baghdad’ Nadhim Zahawi
  • In wide-ranging interview, Zahawi describes PM Starmer’s decision to remove Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from office as “vindictive” and “petty” behavior

DUBAI: Britain is still the most tolerant place on earth, but it must tackle head on both the scourge of racism in society and those who are intent upon taking the law into their own hands, former Conservative MP and minister Nadhim Zahawi said.

His remarks follow a summer of unrest in the UK, where a knife attack in the town of Southport that killed three children and injured 10 sparked nationwide riots, exploited by far-right fringe groups to whip up hatred against immigrants.

“We have to address the racists head-on,” said Zahawi, appearing on the first episode of the new season of the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking.”

“And I think it’s important that we send a very clear message that taking things into your own hands and going out and antagonizing, bullying, beating people just because of their background or color is completely unacceptable.

“And we have to deliver that message very, very clearly. It’s incumbent on the leadership, from the prime minister down, to do that.”




In his new memoir, “The Boy from Baghdad,” Zahawi chronicles his family’s escape from the regime of Saddam Hussein in the 1970s. (Arab News photo)

Zahawi, who was a Conservative member of parliament for Stratford-upon-Avon from 2010 to 2024 and who served as chancellor of the exchequer in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, also spoke of his own struggles growing up in the UK as an Iraqi refugee.

In his new memoir, “The Boy from Baghdad,” Zahawi chronicles his family’s escape from the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein in the late 1970s, the struggles of building a new life in Britain, and the onset of serious financial difficulties.

“I talk about my sort of impostor feeling that just because I came from a privileged family background in Iraq, landing in the UK in 1978-79, but not having the same financial struggles as, say, a refugee today that would land in the UK,” he said.

“We had different financial struggles much later on, which I address in the book, and pretty dire ones, including the bank taking away our home. But because of success and maybe because I don’t conform to the stereotype of what brown people should do in politics in the UK, that they should be socialist or they should be leftwing Labour.”

Indeed, Zahawi also had to contend with racial discrimination. Does he believe Britain has always had a racism problem?




A knife attack in the town of Southport that killed three children sparked riots nationwide. (AFP)

“In the 1980s, it was very different to today, including my own party,” he said. “I think the Conservative Party of the ’80s was a bit of a closed shop for people of my background, but I persevered.

“There are always going to be elements of racism. But I think, if you look at the evidence, the UK has dealt with it in a much better way than pretty much every other country around us in Europe.”

Because of his own experiences as a refugee who made his fortune and rose to the front bench of politics, it seems somewhat jarring that he would go on to support the Conservative government’s scheme to deport failed asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

“So, let me just unpack some of that,” said Zahawi.

“The net increase in migration into the UK was about 740,000 people last year. Clearly, our public services cannot cope with a city the size of Bath being built every year to be able to accommodate that level of migration.

“We’ve been promising, prime minister after prime minister, that we would bring down migration numbers. David Cameron said it would be tens of thousands. It has gone on one trajectory, and that’s up. And that has to be our priority, this government’s priority.”

Of particular concern to UK authorities — and especially to those who took part in the summer’s rioting — are the irregular migrants arriving in Britain on small boats, crossing the English Channel from northern France.

“Forty thousand are coming in illegally on these small boats,” said Zahawi. “Now, the problem with that is ... the unfairness of that, the perception that this is really bad, it’s unfair. Why should these people get to jump the queue to come into the UK? That poisons the well of goodwill with the British public. And so, Rwanda, in my view, was a good deterrent.”




King Charles paying tribute to the victims in Southport. (AFP)

Owing to repeated defeats in the UK’s highest courts over its human rights implications, the Rwanda scheme never got off the ground, and was immediately scrapped by the new Labour administration, which has pledged to tackle the smuggling gangs at the source.

If Europe wants to prevent hundreds of millions of migrants arriving on its doorstep, however, Zahawi says governments would do well to imitate the development agendas of the UAE, China, and others in helping countries in Africa and beyond to stabilize and prosper.

“In Libya and anything south of Libya, there are about half a billion people who will come under pressure and are capable of movement for political reasons, for environmental reasons, or economic reasons,” he said.

“Clearly, Europe cannot absorb half a billion people. So, we have to have some really serious work done upstream in those countries to stabilize them, to allow them to become prosperous.

“The UAE is doing a lot of that work. We should look at what they’re doing and see if we can partner with them, because the work they’re doing in Africa is second only to China and the investment China is making in Africa.”

In July, Zahawi’s party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, suffered the worst election defeat in the party’s 190-year history, losing to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour by a landslide.




Of particular concern to UK authorities are the irregular migrants arriving in Britain on small boats. (AFP)

Despite pledging to put “country first, party second,” Sir Keir has already ruffled feathers among his Tory rivals after deciding to remove a portrait of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from his office at 10 Downing Street.

Although he denied moving the portrait for ideological or party political reasons, opponents have used the new PM’s choice of decor to accuse him of pettiness. “I just think this sort of, dare I say, vindictive type behavior,” said Zahawi. “I thought it’s petty, honestly.”

In early September, Zahawi faced a backlash of his own after posting a photograph on social media of a homeless person sleeping on the pavement in Mayfair, one of the British capital’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

Although Zahawi insists he was merely drawing attention to the high rates of rough sleeping, critics pointed out that homelessness had risen significantly under Conservative rule, and attacked Zahawi’s personal wealth.

“I just happened to be walking through Hertford Street, and I saw this poor, tragic human being lying on the pavement in the morning, and I wanted to highlight that this really is an issue. And it’s heartbreaking,” said Zahawi.

“But then you’ve got the Twitter pile-on from the lefties, who then attack your success, as if I’m somehow affronted by this just because it happens to be Mayfair. No.”




Zahawi appeared on the first episode of the new season of the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking.”

Zahawi says he is concerned the scale of rough sleeping on London’s streets, combined with rates of crime and antisocial behavior, leaves foreign visitors with a bad impression.

“The perception around the world, in the UAE, of their citizens going to England and getting mugged or hurt by some of these criminal gangs, at the moment is reaching a level that I think is deeply damaging to the image of the UK and to London,” he said.

Another recent controversy involved Zahawi’s stance on Iraq. Although he did not have a hand in the UK’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 — indeed, this was the work of a Labour government, and long predated Zahawi’s election to parliament — the Guardian newspaper criticized him for refusing to condemn the war in his new memoir.

Zahawi has since clarified that he supported the toppling of Saddam, but not the way the post-war situation was handled. Indeed, analysts are united in the view that these failures led directly to the emergence of Daesh.

“What Saddam did to the Kurds and the Shiite community in the south was abominable,” he said, referring to the regime’s successive bouts of repression.

“It was murderous. It was criminal. The Anfal program alone is responsible for 182,000 innocent souls being murdered, 4,000 Kurdish villages burnt to the ground. And so I think it’s only right that the world helped these unfortunate souls, these communities, depose such an evil tyrant.

“Post war, I think actually we really made a terrible error of judgment. And I would very easily explain to those interested that I think Tony Blair should have been much more robust to our most important ally, the US, by saying, look, show me the plan.”




Britain is still the most tolerant place on earth, Zahawi told Arab News. (AFP)

He highlighted the de-Baathification campaign and the disbanding of the Iraqi army as particularly grave errors that sparked the extremist insurgency that followed.

“You send home 700,000 men with no hope of a job, no way to put food on the table, and a gun in their pocket. What do you think is going to happen? The end is Daesh. That was a terrible, terrible decision,” he said.

“It’s right to be able to almost disaggregate those two things and say, actually, the removal of an evil dictator was right. But we never really planned for the day after properly. And we have to take part of that responsibility in the UK.”

Returning to domestic affairs, Zahawi says he is concerned about the prospect of growth in the UK economy unless the tax burden can be reduced, inflation brought under control, and the flight of wealthy individuals abroad can be stemmed.

“If you really care about the British economy, why are you exporting talent? Second only to China in losing millionaires,” he said.

“Now, I know wealth is not the only proxy, as I said, to talent. But it’s a pretty good proxy. And we’re only second to China in losing people to Abu Dhabi and Dubai and elsewhere around the world. And we’re importing low-skilled labor.”

Having stood down ahead of the last general election, Zahawi is now free to return to his business ventures. One new acquisition he is said to be keen on is The Daily Telegraph — one of the Western world’s oldest conservative-leaning publications.

“It would be an honor and a privilege to lead a great newspaper like The Daily Telegraph and it is one of our great products,” he said.




Zahawi was a Conservative member of parliament for Stratford-upon-Avon from 2010 to 2024 and served as chancellor of the exchequer in Boris Johnson’s cabinet. (AFP)

The sale has met with controversy, however, after a UAE-backed bid to buy the paper was effectively blocked when the UK government published proposed laws banning foreign states or government officials from holding any direct stakes in newspaper assets.

Although he remains in the running to buy the paper, Zahawi feels the country was sending out the wrong signal. “The UK should always be open for business,” he said.

“The way you protect particular sectors of the economy, if they require protection, whether it’s nuclear or media, is through regulation, good regulation, not legislation.”

 


Thousands attend funeral of Taliban minister killed by Islamic State suicide bombing

Thousands attend funeral of Taliban minister killed by Islamic State suicide bombing
Updated 22 sec ago
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Thousands attend funeral of Taliban minister killed by Islamic State suicide bombing

Thousands attend funeral of Taliban minister killed by Islamic State suicide bombing
The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province
The Cabinet member was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago

GARDA SERAI, Afghanistan: Thousands of people attended the funeral Thursday of a Taliban minister killed in a Kabul suicide bombing claimed by the Daesh group.
The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province. The Cabinet member was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.
The minister died in a blast Wednesday at his ministry in the Afghan capital, along with five others.
He was the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister and the leader of a powerful faction within the Taliban. The US placed a bounty on both their heads.
Tight security was in place for the high-ranking officials attending the funeral, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir.
Armed men guarded the coffin, which was draped in the Taliban flag, and loudspeakers broadcast sermons and eulogies. Local and international media were invited to cover the funeral in Garda Serai district, Paktia.
In a statement carried by the Amaq News Agency, the Daesh Khorasan Province — an affiliate of the Daesh group — said that one of its fighters carried out the suicide bombing. The fighter waited for Haqqani to leave his office and then detonated his device, according to the statement.
An official from Paktia, the Haqqanis’ heartland, gave a different account of what happened. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The assailant was able to gain access to the ministry despite setting off an alarm on the body scanner because he told the guard he had metal plates in his hands, the official said. He also claimed he was a refugee.
The official added that Haqqani made time for refugees and people with disabilities who come to see him at work because he was sympathetic to their plight.
He was approaching the ministry after praying in the compound’s mosque when the assailant detonated the bomb, the official added.
The UN Mission in Afghanistan was among those to condemn the ministry attack. “There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability,” the mission said on X.
Neighboring Pakistan has also expressed its shock. Mohammad Sadiq, the special representative for Afghanistan, wrote on X on Wednesday that the government stood in solidarity with Afghanistan and reiterated its commitment to work with Afghanistan in fighting the “menace of terrorism.”
The Daesh group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has previously carried out bombings across Afghanistan.
But suicide attacks have become rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and US and NATO forces withdrew. Such assaults have mostly targeted minority Shiite Muslims, especially in the capital.

Bangladesh boosts border security as Arakan Army claims control of Myanmar’s Rakhine

Bangladesh boosts border security as Arakan Army claims control of Myanmar’s Rakhine
Updated 35 min 4 sec ago
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Bangladesh boosts border security as Arakan Army claims control of Myanmar’s Rakhine

Bangladesh boosts border security as Arakan Army claims control of Myanmar’s Rakhine
  • Arakan Army announced it had captured the last Myanmar army outpost in north Rakhine
  • Bangladeshi authorities have been recording heavy gunfire on the Myanmar side of the border

DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities said on Thursday they had strengthened security along the border with Myanmar after one of the most powerful ethnic minority armies claimed full control of the frontier.

The Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia in Rakhine, announced earlier this week that it had captured the last Myanmar army outpost in the border town of Maungdaw, allowing the group to completely control the northern state.

Rakhine has become a focal point in Myanmar’s nationwide civil war, in which opposition groups and ethnic militias are fighting the military junta that ousted the country’s elected government in a coup in 2021.

By taking over the northern region, the Arakan Army now controls the entire 270-km border with Bangladesh.

“The Arakan Army has (started) taking control over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border around one year back ... Now, the Arakan Army has taken over the control of its remaining parts,” said Maj. Syed Ishtiaq Morshed, commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Teknaf subdistrict, which shares a border with Myanmar, opposite the town of Maungdaw.

“We don’t have any direct contact with the Arakan Army as they are not any legal or recognized entity ... We have strengthened our monitoring and patrols in border areas to prevent any sort of further intrusion.”

Morshed told Arab News that the Bangladesh Navy, Naval Police, Coast Guard, and the Rapid Action Battalion elite police force have also been deployed to the border region to “prevent any law and order situation” inside Bangladeshi territory.

“We are hearing the sound of gun battles from the other side of the border every day,” he said.

Clashes between Myanmar’s military-controlled government forces and the ethnic militia started in late October 2023, with a multi-pronged offensive against the junta. Fighting has intensified in the past few weeks.

“For the last two weeks, we have heard the sound of the heavy gunfire inside Myanmar area,” said Sheikh Ehsan Uddin, administrative head of Teknaf.

“Security has been beefed up in the border area, and the number of patrol forces with the Border Guard Bangladesh and Coast Guard has been increased.”

The movement of all boats between Teknaf and Saint Martin island off the Bangladeshi coast has been suspended from Thursday. And restrictions have been imposed on those traveling along the Naf River, which marks the border of southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar.

“Villagers and locals are allowed to cross the Naf River only during high tide, as our boats need to get closer to the Myanmar border during low tide,” Uddin said.

“Our Coast Guard will look after the issue so that Bangladeshi boats don’t enter into Myanmar territory by any chance.”


UK announces new funding for UNRWA

UK announces new funding for UNRWA
Updated 12 December 2024
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UK announces new funding for UNRWA

UK announces new funding for UNRWA
  • Britain’s annual £21m will be topped up by £13m
  • Decision follows meeting between PM Keir Starmer, aid agency chief Philippe Lazzarini

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged an additional £13 million ($16.56 million) to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

The announcement followed a meeting between him and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in London on Wednesday.

Starmer gave his condolences to the agency for the deaths of staff members killed in Gaza. The pair agreed that more needs to be done to protect aid workers in the Palestinian enclave, and reiterated their calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The money will come on top of the £21 million per year already given to UNRWA by the UK, which was temporarily suspended by the former government after Israel accused 12 agency members of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in 2023.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was “reassured” that UNRWA met UK government standards for vetting employees following an independent review of the situation.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees. In October, Israel banned it from operating in its territory, hampering its ability to operate in the Occupied Territories.

Starmer condemned the decision, saying it had left him “gravely concerned” and would make it “impossible” for vital work to be done helping displaced and vulnerable Palestinian civilians.


Hong Kong court convicts 7 men, including former lawmaker, of rioting during 2019 protests

Hong Kong court convicts 7 men, including former lawmaker, of rioting during 2019 protests
Updated 12 December 2024
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Hong Kong court convicts 7 men, including former lawmaker, of rioting during 2019 protests

Hong Kong court convicts 7 men, including former lawmaker, of rioting during 2019 protests
  • Prosecutors accused former legislator Lam Cheuk-ting and the six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 armed men
  • The men claimed to be protecting their homeland in Yuen Long, a residential district in Hong Kong’s New Territories

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong judge on Thursday convicted seven people, including a pro-democracy former lawmaker, of rioting during mob violence at a subway station at the height of the city’s anti-government protests in July 2019.
Prosecutors accused former legislator Lam Cheuk-ting and the six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 men armed with wooden poles and metal rods who attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station. The men, all clad in white shirts, in contrast with the black worn by protesters, claimed to be protecting their homeland in Yuen Long, a residential district in Hong Kong’s New Territories.
Dozens of people, including Lam, were injured in the violence, a key chapter that escalated the protest movement as the public criticized police for their delayed response. The landmark ruling could shape the city’s historical narrative of the incident.
Judge Stanley Chan ruled that Lam was not acting as a mediator as he had claimed, but rather was trying to exploit the situation for political gain.
He said Lam’s words directed at the white-shirted men had “fanned the flames.”
The seven defendants are expected to be sentenced in February. Several members of the public sitting in the gallery cried after hearing the verdicts. Others waved at the defendants, with one shouting to Lam, “Hang in there, Ting!” Lam appeared to be at ease.
The prosecution alleged the defendants had either berated the white-shirted men, used obscene hand gestures, hurled objects or shot jets of water at them with a hosepipe.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the rioting charge.
During the trial, Lam said he chose to go to Yuen Long because he hoped his then position as a lawmaker could pressure the police to act quickly. He said he could not leave the scene while fellow residents were in danger. Some defendants who targeted the white-shirted men with a hosepipe argued that they were just trying to stop the attackers from advancing.
Chan, the judge, rejected the arguments of some defendants that they acted in self-defense.
The 2019 protests were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to the mainland for trial. The government withdrew the bill, but the protesters widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.
The social movement was the biggest challenge to the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. In response, Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, leading to the arrest of many activists. Others were silenced or went into exile.
In November, Lam was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail in the city’s biggest national security case.
More than 10,000 people were arrested in connection to the protests for various crimes, such as rioting and participating in an unauthorized assembly. About 10 white-shirted men were convicted in other cases related to the mob violence in July 2019, local media reported.


Taliban minister killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan

Taliban minister killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan
Updated 12 December 2024
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Taliban minister killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan

Taliban minister killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan
  • Khalil Haqqani was killed by a suicide bomber inside his ministry’s compound
  • He is the most high-profile Taliban casualty since the group’s return to power

KABUL: The killing of Afghanistan Refugee Minister Khalil Haqqani has raised new concerns about a Daesh threat in the country, analysts said on Thursday, as the group claimed responsibility for the suicide blast that killed the Taliban official in Kabul.

Haqqani was a senior leader of a powerful faction within the Taliban called the Haqqani network. He became a minister when the Taliban returned to power after US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

Haqqani was the brother of famous guerrilla leader and Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. His nephew, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the current interior minister.

Daesh-run media said on Wednesday evening that it was responsible for the explosion that killed the minister hours earlier at the Ministry of Refugees compound in central Kabul, carried out by a suicide bomber.

The Taliban later confirmed in a statement that Daesh was behind the attack, which killed and injured several others.

“(Haqqani) was a major figure whose politico-military career spanned decades and whose network and contracts transcended not just political divides across the Afghan spectrum but also extended deep into the tribal areas of Pakistan,” Ahmad Waleed Kakar, analyst and founder of The Afghan Eye media platform, told Arab News.

Coming from a tribe inhabiting the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Haqqani’s family has been influential in resolving tribal conflicts and addressing issues at the community level.

After the 2001 US invasion ousted the Taliban from their first stint in power, the faction was responsible for many attacks during the movement’s 20-year insurgency against foreign troops and influence in the country.

In 2011, the US classified Haqqani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, putting a $5 million bounty on his head.

“His killing will be a huge political blow to the Taliban given his history of pragmatic mediation in the movement,” Kakar said.

“Whilst Daesh have been unable to meaningfully consolidate their control over specific geography in Afghanistan or pose a military threat to the Taliban, their limited presence means they remain able to exploit faults in Taliban security and target key figures.”

A regional affiliate of Daesh, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, has been a rival group to the Taliban since it emerged in Afghanistan a decade ago.

Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, ISKP has continued its campaign against the new regime. While deadly blasts have become rare, last year ISKP claimed the explosion that killed the Taliban governor of northern Balkh province. A few months later, the group assassinated the acting governor of Badakhshan in Afghanistan’s northeast.

Haqqani is the most high-profile casualty of an attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power.

“The killing of Khalil Rahman Haqqani is a deeply tragic incident, not only for the Taliban but also for Afghans and the international community. Mr. Haqqani was widely regarded as a pragmatic and moderate leader within the Taliban. Following the collapse of the republic, he was seen in Kabul, personally assuring former leaders of the republic about their safety,” Tameem Bahiss, a Kabul-based security analyst, told Arab News.

“While the Taliban have made significant strides in weakening ISKP’s presence in Afghanistan, this attack on Mr. Haqqani will undoubtedly heighten concerns among the Taliban leadership, leaving them more alarmed and cautious.”