British-Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Apologises For ‘Hurtful’ Tweets

Keir Starmer and the Labour government have been catching a lot of heat for ‘welcoming’ Alaa Abd El-Fattah back into the UK; given the British-Egyptian activist has Tweeted some very controversial things about Britain in the past.

Following the backlash, a spokesperson for the government insisted Starmer was ‘not aware’ of El-Fattah’s social media history when he said he was ‘delighted’ by his return to the UK.

Apparently, the Tories were also unaware when they gifted El-Fattah British citizenship in 2021…

Just a few examples there of things Alaa Abd El-Fattah Tweeted out before he was jailed in Egypt for “spreading misinformation” and “unauthorised protesting” a decade ago, spending 10 years in prison while the British government and human rights groups fought to release him.

Now that he’s back in the UK and this is all kicking off, El-Fattah has finally decided to delete his old Tweets (bit late for that really) and issued an apology for them; insisting they were a result of getting into heated online arguments with trolls and such.

In a statement issued early on Monday morning, El-Fattah wrote:

“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship.

Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise. They were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth. I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.

Looking back I see the writings of a much younger person, deeply enmeshed in antagonistic online cultures, utilising flippant, shocking and sarcastic tones in the nascent, febrile world of social media. But this young man never intended to offend a wider public and was, in the real world, engaged in the non-violent pro-democracy movement and repeatedly incarcerated for calling for full equality, human rights and democracy for all. Today, this middle aged father firmly believes all our fates are entwined and we can only achieve prosperous and safe lives for our children together. All the initiatives I’ve led reflect this.

I must also stress that some tweets have been completely misunderstood, seemingly in bad faith. For example, a tweet being shared to allege homophobia on my part was actually ridiculing homophobia. I have paid a steep price for my public support for LGBTQ rights in Egypt and the world. Another tweet has been wrongly interpreted to suggest Holocaust denial – but in fact the exchange shows that I was clearly mocking Holocaust denial.

I take accusations of antisemitism very seriously. I have always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most sinister and dangerous of forces, and I did my part and paid the price for standing up for the rights of religious minorities in Egypt. I faced a military tribunal and imprisonment for defending Christians in Egypt falsely accused of violence.

This weekend was supposed to be the first time I celebrated my son’s birthday with him since 2012, when he was one year old. I have been imprisoned in Egypt for almost his entire life for my consistent promotion of equality, justice and secular democracy. That included publicly rejecting anti-Jewish speech in Egypt, often at risk to myself, defence of LGBTQ rights, defence of Egyptian Christians, and campaigning against police torture and brutality – all at great risk. And, indeed, my freedom was stripped from me for these defences of human rights. These values are core to my identity.

It has been painful to see some people who supported calls for my release now feel regret for doing so. Whatever they feel now, they did the right thing. Standing up for human rights and a citizen unjustly imprisoned is something honourable, and I will always be grateful for that solidarity. I have received huge empathy and solidarity from people across the UK, enough to win me my freedom, and I will be forever grateful for this.”

Well, that’s quite the 180 from what he was Tweeting 15 years ago, so I guess all we can do is hope that it’s sincere. In fairness, he’s not the only person to have said outrageous things in the heat of the moment when getting into arguments online, and it was a bloody long time ago too. Even still, I’m not sure the rest of us have ever gone quite so extreme as to call for r@pe and violence in the streets.

Somehow, I don’t think this apology will help his case too much as people are still rightly very peeved off about it all. Though more so at Keir Starmer than anyone else. Just unbelievable levels of incompetence on show from the PM and those who should have really briefed him on El-Fattah’s social media history before he went online celebrating his return to the UK.

Par for the course at this point, isn’t it?

For news on Starmer considering an Australian style social media ban in the UK, click HERE. Another vote winner right there.