Raheem Kassam

Kassam was born in the Hammersmith Hospital in White City, West London. His parents were Tanzanian Muslim immigrants of Indian origin from Hillingdon.[1] He was raised an Ismaili Shia Muslim, but wrote in 2016 that he had not been a practising Muslim for over a decade. Kassam was formerly an atheist, stating that Christopher Hitchens' rejection of religious faith ("religions are versions of the same untruth") inspired him.[9][10] Kassam was educated at Bishopshalt School, a state comprehensive school in Uxbridge and St Helen's College, Hillingdon, and then studied Politics at the University of Westminster.[11]

Kassam briefly worked for the defunct American financial services firm Lehman Brothers before it went bankrupt in 2008.[12]

Kassam was a national executive board member of youth movement Conservative Future and director of campus anti-extremism group Student Rights, and campaigned against the London School of Economics for accepting money from Gaddafi's Libya;[11] the university's director Howard Davies would later resign when new revelations revealed the extent of the institution's relationship with the Gaddafi regime.[13] In a 2011 interview, Kassam named his idols as Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher and Barry Goldwater, and spoke of his admiration for the United States' free markets.[11] He has called his former university, the University of Westminster, a "hotbed of radical Islam", citing the fact that Jihadi John was at his campus as evidence.[14]

In 2011, Kassam was employed as campaigns director at the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative foreign policy think-tank.[15]

Kassam managed electoral campaigns in the UK and US, and was Executive Editor of The Commentator blogging platform, but left the organisation after falling out with the founding editor, Robin Shepherd, who described Kassam as "a danger to British democracy, and the rule of law".[16][1] He has been a member of conservative think tanks such as the Bow Group, the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society, the Gatestone Institute and the Middle East Forum, and was involved in an attempted foundation of the UK version of the Tea Party movement.[17] Kassam was a supporter of the controversial Young Britons' Foundation, described by its founder as a "conservative madrasa" which later shut down due to allegations of misconduct against director Mark Clarke.[18][19][20] He and James Delingpole set up the London edition of the American far-right news outlet Breitbart News.[1] Kassam left Breitbart in May 2018.[21]

In 2018, Kassam joined the Institut des sciences sociales, économiques et politiques (Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences), founded by politicians in the far-right[22] National Front Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Thibaut Monnier, in Lyon, France.[23]

In March 2019, Kassam and lawyer Will Chamberlain purchased Human Events, a conservative American digital-only publication, from Salem Media Group for $300,000.[24][25] Kassam became Global editor-in-chief of Human Events when it was re-launched on 1 May.[26] Human Events announced that Kassam would be leaving the outlet on 8 August.[27]

In July 2019, the Australian Labor Party called for Kassam to be banned from entering the country. Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator Kristina Keneally said "We should not allow career bigots — a person who spreads hate speech about Muslims, about women, about gay and lesbian people — to enter our country with the express intent of undermining equity and equality."[28]

In October 2019, Kassam began co-hosting War Room: Impeachment, a daily radio show and podcast with Steve Bannon, to nudge the White House and its allies into taking a more focused and aggressive posture to counteract the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[29]

While ballots were being counted in the 2020 election, Kassam promoted claims by Donald Trump intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.[30]

Kassam has described himself as a nationalist.[31] Kassam's politics have frequently been described as far-right by mainstream commentators and sources.[32][33][34] He has also been described by media and academic sources as a figure in the alt-right.[35][36][37] When running for leader in 2016, Kassam supported the repeal of a ban on former members of the National Front and British National Party white nationalist parties from joining UKIP.[38]

Kassam has described Islam as a "fascistic and totalitarian ideology",[39] described the Quran as "fundamentally evil",[40] stated that "we are at war with Shari'a"[41] and has supported curbing Muslim immigration to the United Kingdom.[42] He has been described as a counter-jihadist by MEND.[43] He views himself as a Christian in a post responding to Ron DeSantis supporters attacking him.[44]

Kassam's political and media strategies have been described as "shock and awful" tactics.[45][46] Kassam has been a persistent critic of Labour Party Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, accusing him of turning the city into a "shithole"[47] and having links to terrorism and extremism.[48]

Following his period with the Conservative Party, Kassam became a UK Independence Party voter in late 2013, joined the party early in the following year, and soon became Nigel Farage's senior adviser.[1]

On 14 August 2017, Kassam published his book No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You with Nigel Farage writing the foreword to the book.[72] The idea of dangerous "no-go areas" for non-Muslims in European cities has been linked to the concept of "Eurabia".[73] On 19 April 2018, Kassam self-published Enoch Was Right: 'Rivers of Blood' 50 Years On, in which he argues that the vision of politician Enoch Powell's anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech has been realised.[74]

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• Raheem Kassam's channel on YouTube
• Raheem Kassam at IMDb
• Raheem Kassam on the Buck Sexton Show