Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?

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Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
OP - February 12, 2011, 05:10 PM

I'm seeing some liking this chap. I want to hear why you think good of him, if at all.
Personally, I find him revolting. And when he thinks YOU (as a non-Muslim) are a 'cattle' and with 'no intelligence', you should find him revolting too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Hasan
Quote
Mehdi Hasan is senior politics editor at the New Statesman and a former news and current affairs editor at Channel 4. At 29, Mehdi was the youngest editor in commissioning at Channel 4 and earned a nomination for the Royal TV Society Young Journalist of the Year Award.
Mehdi studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford University.
[edit]Appearances

His first appearance on BBC Question Time saw him debate alongside soon-to-be Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Simon Hughes, former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer, Melanie Phillips and former Deputy PM Michael Heseltine on 13 May 2010. He made a second appearance on 23 September 2010, this time sitting alongside Business Secretary Vince Cable, Tory grandee John Redwood, former Minister Caroline Flint and journalist Ian Hislop in Liverpool during the annual Lib-Dem autumn conference. He also makes frequent appearances on the Sunday morning programme ”The Big Questions”.
He has given talks at several conferences and universities in the past. He also spoke at a "Next Steps for Labour" event organised by the Tribune newspaper on 17 May 2010 at the TUC Congress House, arguing that the Labour Party should take time to elect its new Leader, and that it had to rethink its approach to certain issues such as civil liberties and the Iraq war.
[edit]Controversy

Medhi Hasan caused controversy over a speech he gave to the Al Khoei Islamic Centre in February 2009. In the speech, Hasan referred to atheists as 'cattle' and people of 'no intelligence'.

“The kaffar, the disbelievers, the atheists who remain deaf and stubborn to the teachings of Islam, the rational message of the Quran; they are described in the Quran as, quote, “a people of no intelligence”, Allah describes them as; not of no morality, not as people of no belief – people of “no intelligence” – because they’re incapable of the intellectual effort it requires to shake off those blind prejudices, to shake off those easy assumptions about this world, about the existence of God. In this respect, the Quran describes the atheists as “cattle”, as cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world.”

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #1 - February 12, 2011, 05:23 PM

lol
There are two "I strongly disapprove of him" options.
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #2 - February 12, 2011, 05:31 PM

Got to admit, doing a poll for this is funny.

Honestly, I think Medhi Hassan is a bit of a creep, but I've started to have some sympathy with him.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #3 - February 12, 2011, 05:43 PM

He has left wing views that many of us will agree with regarding the economy, health, education, crime etc.

But he's too quick to say that those who disagree with him suffer from a phobia, and he's too fixated on Nick Griffin/BNP/Far-Right bigots and unnecessarily brings them into a debate to smear his opponent and stifle debate.

.
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #4 - February 12, 2011, 05:46 PM

s
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #5 - February 12, 2011, 06:24 PM

@MAB

I wouldn't really have an issue with Mehdi Hassan if it wasn't for the fact that he is political editor of New Statesman.
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #6 - February 12, 2011, 07:12 PM

q
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #7 - February 12, 2011, 09:20 PM

s
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #8 - February 12, 2011, 09:49 PM

Quote from: Kenan on February 12, 2011, 05:23 PM
lol
There are two "I strongly disapprove of him" options.

Ah pants, sorry about that. Fixed and poll is RESET.
VOTE AGAIN PEEPS PLS!

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #9 - February 12, 2011, 09:56 PM

Quote from: Shahid Raza on February 12, 2011, 05:43 PM
He has left wing views that many of us will agree with regarding the economy, health, education, crime etc.

Please elaborate. Seriously, when the guy suffers from such a high level of cognitive dissonance I lose all confidence in all other opinions he holds. Plus, he is the editor of a highly left magazine - doesn't that just say it all?!

Quote from: Mount A Bison on February 12, 2011, 05:46 PM
I can think of only one person who matches this description, the great Turkish philosopher who dolls out his timeless wisdom to the Murtadeen. My contention is that from what I've read of his body of work Mehdi is more than a forest-chin, more than a towelhead, but a social democrat of the Keynesian variety with whom I have a good deal more in common than a quack like Douglas-poke-me-harder-Mr-neocon-Murray.

Go for it, highlight all the good parts of Mehdi. Since when has Douglas ever not approved of Keynesian economics? You'd be interested to know the Neocons care quite a bit about welfare - but not to the extent it paves the way for generations of people on the doll.

The term 'neocon' is pejorative - only from the lack of mass understanding imo. A bit like the word ... some think also pejorative from a lack of in-depth consideration and understanding ... atheist.

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #10 - February 12, 2011, 09:58 PM

Quote from: billy on February 12, 2011, 05:31 PM
Honestly, I think Medhi Hassan is a bit of a creep, but I've started to have some sympathy with him.

Not you too - okay what am I missing?
LOL

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #11 - February 12, 2011, 10:34 PM

HO

I am starting to have sympathy for him because he is beholden to the reactionary logic of Islam. Lets say he wanted to explain that his speech about kuffars was simply him mimicking the rhetoric of Islam. In order to ingratiate himself to his audience, he had to use the 'language' of his audience. OK, fine. That could possibly be an explanation of a kind for why he would employ such words and stupidly bigoted lines.

So what happens next? Mehdi is an educated fella, he very possibly doesn't actually believe all that nonsense. Lets just imagine that he very probably thinks that this kind of rhetoric is rooted in chauvinism and a deleterious mindset that divides humanity, and is part of a quite nonsensical mentality that is utterly at odds with modern thinking, including the kind of liberal, plural ideas that Mehdi instinctively feels an affinity with.

So what does he do now? If he repudiates those words, he:

(a) Basically admits to the criticisms that are made of Islam, that it has a fundamentally offensive and reactionary attitude towards non Muslims.

(b) In which case, he has to challenge some literalist assumptions of the faith, something that can put him at odds with Islam and that 'audience'

Basically, he is in a Catch 22 situation.

So yeah, even though I dislike what he says, in such a way of looking at it, he does start to get a little bit of sympathy from me. Not enough to not criticise him. But if it is like that, then yeah, he is caught between a rock and a hard place in a way.

(My general impression is this - that there are people who would be much more forthright in discarding and criticising tenets of Islam if it were not for the roving ears of non Muslims listening in, such is the pressure of defensiveness, tribal loyalty, and fear of being accused of Uncle Tom-ism)

Just speculating is all.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #12 - February 12, 2011, 11:49 PM

Oh I see. Thanks.

So as I understand you:

- You sympathies with the fact his mind has submitted to the Islamic and struggles with this memeplex against Western liberal values and still being integrated to his conservative Muslim audience (i.e. his cognitive dissonance)
- You speculate there is a chance he DOESN'T believe in all the nonsense really ...
- If he repudiates his despicable past comments:
a) He admits to fundamental flaws in Islam
b) It puts him against fellow Muslims that he targets the fairly conservative Muslims and agree to those bigoted views

A few points here I think:
- I don't see why this catch-22 situation deserves any sympathy. The very fact it is catch-22 and he can live with it - further proves it is cognitive dissonance holding it all together for him (over the theory he was acting all of that out). He will get my sympathy whenever his mind has the capability and an ounce of culpability in learning from his mistakes.
- So what if repudiating his comments puts him at odds with other conservative Muslims? It is a big point if he learns, repudiates, then tells the story of how hopelessly inert he was at one point as a way of proving how indoctrinating the Islamic mind disease can be in contagiously infecting Oxford/UCL/LSE minds etc.

I think to have sympathy with a troubled mind caught up in this situation is like saying one has sympathy with terrorists who read the Quran the wrong way or wouldn't do such a thing if Islam never existed. Let's extend this to say perhaps Germans who were executed in WW2 should have sympathy in that they were indoctrinated to mass slaughter Jews. Although I entirely appreciate there are child terrorists in the Afghan/Pakistan region who are indoctrinated at a young age and blow themselves up by mid-teens under the influence of the Taliban - I'm afraid when one becomes an adult they should have the capability to reason and withstand from toxic ideas within Islam or any other dogma or propaganda. For the population of minds that are, let's face it, vulnerable I can understand why the banning of Zakir Naik is agood thing to protect them. But, come on, Mehdi is an OXFORD graduate. He is no fool. If his mind cannot defend against Islam, and if he is taking actions due to it, I'm sorry but he deserves no sympathy and instead deserves all the flack against his thinking until he unplugs himself and snaps out of it.

You know, it's a good point though billy. Perhaps I'll change my mind tomorrow after sleeping over it.

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #13 - February 12, 2011, 11:54 PM

Btw .. when I say disapprove, this doesn't mean I dismiss the guy outright. I listen/read to a lot of his views (and laugh at them) and disapprove him through criticism of his thoughts and actions. Not outright dismissal which the left love doing: "What? Ban burka? BIGOT! Not talking to you! Shoo!".

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #14 - February 13, 2011, 12:00 AM

HO

I'm just seeing it from his point of view, thats all. I still think he's a creep, and wrong. Just trying to see it from his perspective.

Of course I could be wrong. He could really believe all of that stuff, and just get by with a lot of cognitive dissonance.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #15 - February 13, 2011, 12:08 AM

@ billy

since i'm a secret admirer of you, i don't like to see you so deluded, so i have unearthed this video for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPeyxJ7vGU

don't miss the word that comes out his mouth at 1:47

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #16 - February 13, 2011, 12:31 AM

debunker, thanks for your kind words mate

I could well be wrong and deluded about Mehdi, and I'm ready to be called out for it if so. No shame in extending a sympathetic imagination to him and turning out to be wrong, I'll take that. He might have changed. He is in a position of some influence now, being a senior editor at The New Statesman and being called upon to write for national newspapers and appear on TV. He does need to account for his words.

Its the parts of his speech at 3 mins 29 seconds and 4 mins 20 seconds that are really obnoxious and disturbing. And I had not see the rant that starts at 6 minutes 30 seconds, but LoL'd when he included in the litany of hateful things that Yazid was, that he was 'a tyrant, a killer, a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover......a homosexual, a paedophile, a sexual deviant'

Being a dog lover and a music lover, on the same level as being a killer and a paedophile!

OK, to be frank, whatever sympathy I might have had for Mehdi should be contingent on him explaining himself. He needs to account for his rants. This stuff is just demented.

It almost beggars belief that someone could be so two faced and deceitful, and that he could get away with it having such a high profile in the media recently, and that he could be associated with the Left, and what was once the house publication of the progressive Left in the UK. Or really is he just so overwhelmed by cognitive dissonance that he exists in some kind of parallel universe, seeing no breach between these rants and what he claims to stand for elsewhere?

How do you read him, debunker?

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #17 - February 13, 2011, 12:37 AM

Quote
How do you read him, debunker?

he's a two-faced fork-tongued liar.

A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #18 - February 13, 2011, 12:41 AM

Quote from: debunker on February 13, 2011, 12:37 AM
liar.

Didn't I busted your ass in the fence thread?

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #19 - February 13, 2011, 12:42 AM

Quote from: debunker on February 13, 2011, 12:37 AM
he's a two-faced fork-tongued liar.

I make you most probably right.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #20 - February 13, 2011, 12:44 AM

Quote from: muddy on February 13, 2011, 12:41 AM
Didn't I busted your ass in the fence thread?

post the link, bitch.

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #21 - February 13, 2011, 03:28 PM

w
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #22 - February 13, 2011, 04:05 PM

Quote from: Mount A Bison on February 13, 2011, 03:28 PM
That being the case, with whom should one align himself?

How about a third option?
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #23 - February 13, 2011, 04:07 PM

How about you tell me what that is?
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #24 - February 13, 2011, 04:28 PM

Align with niether of them ?

Like a compass needle that points north, a man?s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #25 - February 13, 2011, 04:38 PM

How about promoting a truly progressive left paradigm. The one that doesn't "tolerate" or "respect" the Other (both are actually signs of patronizing disrespect) but clearly promotes the egalitarian legacy of the French Revolution - which includes an unconditional right to conduct public critical analysis of all religions. To treat religionists as adults fully responsible for their beliefs, not as some exotic halfwits who throw a hissy fit every time somebody disagrees with them. A paradigm that is anti-capitalist, truly egalitarian and universalistic but does not see those who promote ideas that are somewhat compatible but whose ideology is nevertheless explicitly anti-modern as automatic allies. Don't get me wrong - there is a place for religion and Islam in such struggle, question is what kind of religion and what kind of Islam?
Have you seen the video debunker posted above @3:29, 4:20 and especially @6:30?
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #26 - February 13, 2011, 04:41 PM

Quote from: billy on February 13, 2011, 12:00 AM
HO

I'm just seeing it from his point of view, thats all. I still think he's a creep, and wrong. Just trying to see it from his perspective.

Of course I could be wrong. He could really believe all of that stuff, and just get by with a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Hey I appreciate your view - I don't mean to argue ...

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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #27 - February 13, 2011, 04:45 PM

a
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #28 - February 13, 2011, 04:45 PM

Sorry, but I'm just LoL'ing again at Mehdi putting being a dog-lover and a music-lover on a par with being a killer and a paedophile in his speech about Yazid.

To be honest, he deserves to be laughed out of town, but then alot of people would look like idiots.

Progressive Left my arse.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Mehdi Hassan ... do you approve of him?
Reply #29 - February 13, 2011, 04:49 PM

I like what Mehdi said to his co-religionists over here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhD3TysRc

I do not like what Mehdi said to his co-religionists over here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31LOVIR-M

or here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAPqT3QdFU

.
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