{"id":260876,"date":"2026-01-01T02:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260876\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T02:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:12:15","slug":"alaa-abdel-fattah-should-he-stay-or-should-he-go-slugger-otoole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260876\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaa Abdel Fattah \u2013 Should He Stay or Should He Go? \u2013 Slugger O’Toole"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m 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\u2019s youth-led digital activism and later of the struggle for civil liberties under successive governments.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u00a0 was sentenced to five years in prison by an Emergency State Security Court for \u2018spreading false news\u2019 based largely on a social media post discussing torture in Egyptian prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 <\/b>comments made prior to him acquiring British citizenship, (for which he has subsequently apologised):\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0l93lx1rx3o<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rupert Lowe, independent MP for Great Yarmouth:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Being a British citizen doesn’t make you British.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(No doubt British citizens in the North of Ireland would fully agree?)<\/p>\n

\n

I have no moral difficulty in stripping British citizenship from vile individuals like Alaa Abd el-Fattah \u2013 it’s an argument I’ve been making for many months. <\/p>\n

Say for example, the wife of a Pakistani man knew that her husband was raping a vulnerable young white girl? Was aware\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nigel Farage, MP and leader of Reform:<\/p>\n

\n

I have reported Alaa Abd el-Fattah to counter-terrorism police.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch. leader of the Tory Party:<\/p>\n

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The Home Secretary should look at all possible options for Alaa Abd El-Fattah, including whether his citizenship can be revoked and he can be removed from Britain.<\/p>\n

British citizenship is more than a passport. It means subscribing to our values.<\/p>\n

Britain is our home not a hotel.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) December 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t 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 \u2018British values\u2019 (whatever they are, and that he\u2019s explained and apologised for the comments. Perhaps I\u2019m 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\u2019s 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\u2019s British citizenship on the same grounds?<\/p>\n

I suspect that the indignant fury over Abdel Fattah\u2019s comments and citizenship is little more than performative point scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hughie<\/p>\n

Hughie Beag is a West Belfast native and recovering legal scholar who spends lots of time in his spouse\u2019s native Basque Country<\/p>\n

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