Top 76 Quotes & Sayings by Mehdi Hasan - Page 2

Reagan was no neocon.

I've lost count of the number of websites that try to 'out' every Muslim in public life as an extremist or Islamist of some shape or form.

Have you ever been called an Islamist? How about a jihadist or a terrorist? Extremist, maybe? Welcome to my world. It's pretty depressing.

Most Asians I know still don't trust the Tories on race - and they have good reason not to.

Let's start with the euro. What on earth were we thinking? How could anyone with the faintest grasp of economics have believed it was anything other than sheer insanity to yoke together diverse national economies such as Greece, Ireland, Germany and Finland under a single exchange rate and a single interest rate?

I am a believing and practising Muslim - but I am also a social democrat.

One of the hardiest myths in British public life is that there is a conspiracy of silence on immigration. Liberals and leftists, it is alleged, have bandied together to prevent debate or discussion of 'mass immigration' into the U.K., caused by Labour's 'open door' policies.

The truth is that the dream of 'two states for two peoples,' born in the '90s, died in the noughties. The two-state solution, the popular and principled option for so long now, is neither practical nor possible.

Deficit, deficit, deficit. The political and media elites are obsessed with the D-word.

I have a long history of defending, and promoting, free speech and open debate - especially (especially!) within Muslim communities.

The moment has come, as we enter the teenies, to forget the idea of a Palestinian state existing side by side with a Jewish state, and to argue and agitate instead for the only remaining, viable and democratic option: a single, secular and binational state for Israelis and Palestinians.

There is no longer a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Shortly after he became the first Muslim to attend cabinet, I urged Sadiq Khan to be prepared. The Islamophobes, the new McCarthyites, would at some stage come after him. He laughed it off. Yet it was only a matter of time.

Social media has emboldened an army of online Islamophobes; in the real world, mosques have been firebombed and politicians line up to condemn Muslim terrorism/clothing/meat/seating arrangements.

The public is to the left not simply of New Labour, but the political and media classes as a whole.

My fundamental concern about the role of faith groups in providing social provision is democratic: how do we hold them to account? To whom are they responsible? How do we, the public, the recipients of welfare, punish them if they make mistakes or become corrupt?