I’m reading here about the case of Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent Egyptian pro-democracy activist who first became well known in the 2000s as a blogger criticising authoritarian rule and police abuse under Hosni Mubarak. He became a symbol of Egypt’s youth-led digital activism and later of the struggle for civil liberties under successive governments.

Abdel Fattah was first imprisoned in 2011 by Egyptian military authorities for protesting against military trials of civilians and under President Mohamed Mors Alaa he and other secular activists remained critical of the authoritarian tendencies of that government. In a 2013 military takeover, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power, and thousands of activists, journalists, Islamists, and secular dissidents were imprisoned. Abdel Fattah became one of the most high-profile detainees during this era. In 2015 Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for participating in an unauthorized protest under Egypt’s restrictive protest law, in 2019 he was day released under probation but had to spend nights at a police station. In September 2019 Abdel Fattah was rearrested during a renewed crackdown on protests and In December 2021 he  was sentenced to five years in prison by an Emergency State Security Court for ‘spreading false news’ based largely on a social media post discussing torture in Egyptian prisons. 

In 2021 Abdel Fattah acquired British citizenship through his mother, who was born in the United Kingdom, his case gained international attention and human-rights organisations have declared him a prisoner of conscience.

After being released from prison and being removed from a travel ban list, Abdel Fattah left Egypt and came to Britain to be reunited with his fourteen-year-old son, who lives in Brighton. Some British politicians have subsequently called for him to be stripped of his British citizenship for retrospective comments made prior to him acquiring British citizenship, (for which he has subsequently apologised): 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0l93lx1rx3o

 

Rupert Lowe, independent MP for Great Yarmouth: 

(No doubt British citizens in the North of Ireland would fully agree?)

Nigel Farage, MP and leader of Reform:

 

Kemi Badenoch. leader of the Tory Party:

 

Now, I don’t know if Abdel Fattah should be stripped of his British citizenship, (for me there are shades of the Shamima Begum dilemma in the case), but I would tend to come down on the side of democratic secularism being pretty much in line with ‘British values’ (whatever they are, and that he’s explained and apologised for the comments. Perhaps I’m being too naive? For me, the question is that if current personality is to be judged on retrospective commentary, where does that leave Farage and the comments from his schooldays? If Abdel Fattah’s citizenship is to be withdrawn on account of retrospective comments advocating racism and violence, why have no top-tier politicians called for the revocation of Tommy Robinson’s British citizenship on the same grounds?

I suspect that the indignant fury over Abdel Fattah’s comments and citizenship is little more than performative point scoring. 

Hughie Beag

Hughie Beag is a West Belfast native and recovering legal scholar who spends lots of time in his spouse’s native Basque Country

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