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===Sean Gabb===
===Sean Gabb===
The [[Libertarian Alliance]] did a press release stating that Sean Gabb had been invited to take part in a talk taped for the [[BBC]] on multi-culturalism, debating with [[Yasmin Alibhai-Brown]]. Alibhai-Brown objected when Gabb said that the Libertarian Alliance believed the government's [[Commission for Racial Equality]] should be shut down, saying that without laws meant to control discrimination, it would occur more frequently. Gabb asked her, "Yasmin, are you saying that the [[indigenous]] majority in this country is so seething with hatred and discontent that it is only restrained by law from rising up and tearing all the ethnic minorities to pieces?" to which Alibhai-Brown answered, "Yes." Gabb asked if Alibhai-Brown seriously thought that Gabb wanted to murder her, at which point Gabb's voice was faded out, 20 minutes prior to the end of the debate. After this debate, it was alleged that Gabb's microphone was shut off.<ref name="bbcshutoff">{{cite web
The [[Libertarian Alliance]] did a press release stating that [[Sean Gabb]] had been invited to take part in a talk taped for the [[BBC]] on multi-culturalism, debating with [[Yasmin Alibhai-Brown]]. Alibhai-Brown objected when Gabb said that the Libertarian Alliance believed the government's [[Commission for Racial Equality]] should be shut down, saying that without laws meant to control discrimination, it would occur more frequently. Gabb asked her, "Yasmin, are you saying that the [[indigenous]] majority in this country is so seething with hatred and discontent that it is only restrained by law from rising up and tearing all the ethnic minorities to pieces?" to which Alibhai-Brown answered, "Yes." Gabb asked if Alibhai-Brown seriously thought that Gabb wanted to murder her, at which point Gabb's voice was faded out, 20 minutes prior to the end of the debate. After this debate, it was alleged by the Libertarian Alliance that Gabb's microphone was shut off.<ref name="bbcshutoff">{{cite web
| title = BBC Censors Discussion of Multiculturalism: Shuts off Microphones on Libertarian Alliance Spokesman
| title = BBC Censors Discussion of Multiculturalism: Shuts off Microphones on Libertarian Alliance Spokesman
| publisher = ''The Libertarian Alliance''
| publisher = ''The Libertarian Alliance''

Revision as of 07:49, 4 January 2009

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (born Yasmin Damji on 10 December 1949) is an Uganda-born journalist and author, based in London.

Life and Work

Alibhai-Brown's mother was born in East Africa and her father moved there from India in the 1920's. Born into the Ugandan-Asian community in 1949, she belongs to the Ismaili sect.[1] An Ugandan Asian expelled by Idi Amin in 1972, Alibhai-Brown was educated at Linacre College, Oxford University, completing her Master of Philosophy in literature in 1975.[2] She has one son from a first marriage and a daughter from her current marriage to Colin Brown.[3]

A journalist on the New Statesman magazine in the early 1980s, Alibhai-Brown now contributes a weekly column to The Independent. She has also contributed to the New York Times, Newsweek and The Guardian. Alibhai-Brown is a regular panelist on BBC's Dateline London, and also an occasional panelist on Matthew Wright's The Wright Stuff, her most recent appearance being in October 2008.[4] She won the George Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2002 and the EMMA Award for Journalism in 2004.[5]

Alibhai-Brown has been a fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think tank associated with New Labour, though she ended her connection with the Labour Party over the war in Iraq and other issues. She supported the Liberal Democrats in the 2005 general election.[6] She is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre,[2] as well as at the British-American Project, though she has distanced herself from the latter organisation in recent years.[7]

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was awarded an Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2000, which she accepted mostly because it would make it less likely her mother would face deportation. However, at the end of 2003, after poet Benjamin Zephaniah rejected the award, as she wrote, beaming "a mercilessly bright light on the whole secretive and dubious system and the delusions which went with it," she sent it back. She claimed that as "the sordid details of royal life creep out," unanswered questions about the effects of past British colonialism and especially the way New Labour "brutalises asylum-seekers, has no respect for the precious legal traditions" and "colludes with the illegal and cruel treatment of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees."[8] She later told a parliamentary committee that her mother was "distraught" that she had handed back the award.[9] In 2006, she reflected more on her rejection of the award, writing: "The Honours system sucks and we should start again, devise a fair and independent new method to annually acclaim exceptional citizens for their contribution to the nation, not to overweening political parties or the semi-skilled, dysfunctional Windsors."[10] On her website she emphasizes opposition to the Iraq war.[2]

Criticism

Some critics have accused Alibhai-Brown of political correctness. Michael Wharton stated that "at 3.6 degrees on the Alibhai-Brown scale, it sets off a shrill scream that will not stop until you've pulled yourself together with a well-chosen anti-racist slogan".[11] Alibhai-Brown notes that her pamphlet "After Multiculturalism" which re-assesses the multicultural ideology in Britain was the "first critical examination by a social democrat of a settled and now damaging orthodoxy."[2]

She is strongly criticised by Douglas Murray in his book, Neoconservatism: why we need it, for having written about Iraq that "there have been times I wanted more chaos, more shocks, more disorder to teach our side a lesson." Murray called her attitude "destructive and inexcusable" and wrote "the vindication of her own opinion is of more importance to her than the lives of British and American troops and Iraqi civilians".[citation needed]

In 2008, she referred to some Asians and Blacks who supported the British Conservative Party as "Uncle Toms".[12]

Martin Amis

In October 2007, Alibhai-Brown was drawn into the row between Martin Amis and Terry Eagleton over the treatment of British Muslims. After Eagleton accused Amis of Islamophobia, she wrote a comment piece in The Independent accusing Amis of being "with the beasts" (ie, neo-fascists).[13] Amis' responded with a highly critical 'open letter'.[14]

Muslim Council of Britain

When the Muslim Council of Britain called for the Holocaust Memorial Day to be replaced with the Genocide Memorial Day, she criticized the Council's refusal to "mourn victims of one of the deadliest mass exterminations in human history." [15] The Council responded by accusing her of misrepresenting their position stating that it "fully accepts and recognizes the monstrous horror and cruelty that underpinned the Nazi holocaust".[citation needed]

Andrew Green

In an article in The Independent in September 2008, Alibhai-Brown alleged that Sir Andrew Green of the pressure group Migrationwatch was “gleeful” that poll results showed that one in four Britons was fearful of the scale of immigration into Britain and that his campaigning had caused this. The Independent subsequently issued a full apology to Mr.Green,[16] stating that the allegations were untrue.

Sean Gabb

The Libertarian Alliance did a press release stating that Sean Gabb had been invited to take part in a talk taped for the BBC on multi-culturalism, debating with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Alibhai-Brown objected when Gabb said that the Libertarian Alliance believed the government's Commission for Racial Equality should be shut down, saying that without laws meant to control discrimination, it would occur more frequently. Gabb asked her, "Yasmin, are you saying that the indigenous majority in this country is so seething with hatred and discontent that it is only restrained by law from rising up and tearing all the ethnic minorities to pieces?" to which Alibhai-Brown answered, "Yes." Gabb asked if Alibhai-Brown seriously thought that Gabb wanted to murder her, at which point Gabb's voice was faded out, 20 minutes prior to the end of the debate. After this debate, it was alleged by the Libertarian Alliance that Gabb's microphone was shut off.[17]

References

  1. ^ Ismailis in the News: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, writer and journalist
  2. ^ a b c d http://www.alibhai-brown.com/about.php Who Am I? page at Yasmin Alibhai-Brown web site].
  3. ^ http://www.alibhai-brown.com/archive/article.php?id=165 Love in Your Fifties], Yasmin Alibhai-Brown web site September 26, 2008.
  4. ^ The Wright Stuff| TV Programme Guide | OnTheBox.com
  5. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The shadowy role of Labour Friends of Israel; Such lobbyists and their back-room influence should make us very uneasy, The Independent, December 3, 2007.
  6. ^ "Vote Liberal Democrat, get Left-wing activists", Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2008. Retrieved on 19 March 2008.
  7. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown "This unhealthy strain of left-wing McCarthyism", The Independent, 17 March 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
  8. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Why I have decided to give back my gong, The Indendent, December 1, 2003.
  9. ^ House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration Minutes of Evidence, February 26, 2004.
  10. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, These shameless honours dishonour us all, The Independent, June 19, 2006.
  11. ^ http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/03/15/do1504.xml
  12. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (2008-06-02). "Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: A lament for the death of the left as a political force". The Independent.
  13. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown "It's time for civilised and honest engagement", The Independent, 8 October 2007. Retrieved on 4 July 2008.
  14. ^ reproduced in Jonathan Brown "Amis launches scathing response to accusations of Islamophobia", The Independent, 12 October 2007. Retrieved on 4 July 2008.
  15. ^ [1]
  16. ^ "Sir Andrew Green, An apology
  17. ^ "BBC Censors Discussion of Multiculturalism: Shuts off Microphones on Libertarian Alliance Spokesman". The Libertarian Alliance. 2004-02-16. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

Select bibliography

  • Some of My Best Friends Are... (2004). London: Politico's. ISBN 1-84275-107-7
  • Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed Race Britons (2001). London: Women's Press. ISBN 0-7043-4706-7
  • Who Do We Think We Are? Imagining the New Britain (2000). London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-025598-2
  • After Multiculturalism (2000). London: Foreign Policy Centre. ISBN 0-9535598-8-2
  • True Colours (1999). London: Institute for Public Policy Research. ISBN 1-86030-083-9
  • No Place Like Home (1995). London: Virago. ISBN 1-85381-642-6
  • The Colour of Love: Mixed Race Relationships (with Anne Montague) (1992). London: Virago. ISBN 1-85381-221-8
  • Racism (Points of View), (with Colin Brown), (1992). Hodder Wayland. ISBN-10: 1852106514

News items

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