Raheem Kassam facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Raheem Kassam
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At the 2018 CPAC
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| Born | 1 August 1986 London, England
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| Alma mater | University of Westminster |
| Political party | Reform UK (2019–present) UK Independence Party (2014–2015, 2016–2019) Conservative (former) |
Raheem J. Kassam (born 1 August 1986) is a British political activist, former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News London, and former chief adviser to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage. He has been described as far-right and right-wing by several media publications. Kassam formerly ran in the party's November 2016 leadership election before dropping out of the race on 31 October 2016. He is the former global editor-in-chief of Human Events and most recently became the editor-in-chief of The National Pulse.
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Early life and education
Kassam was born in the Hammersmith Hospital in White City, West London. His parents were Tanzanian Muslim immigrants of Indian origin from Hillingdon. 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. 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.
Kassam briefly worked for the defunct American financial services firm Lehman Brothers before it went bankrupt in 2008.
Career
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; the university's director Howard Davies would later resign when new revelations revealed the extent of the institution's relationship with the Gaddafi regime. 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. 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.
In 2011, Kassam was employed as campaigns director at the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative foreign policy think-tank.
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". 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. Kassam and James Delingpole set up the London edition of the American far-right news outlet Breitbart News. Kassam left Breitbart in May 2018.
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 National Front Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Thibaut Monnier, in Lyon, France.
In March 2019, Kassam and lawyer Will Chamberlain purchased Human Events, a conservative American digital-only publication, from Salem Media Group for $300,000. Kassam became Global editor-in-chief of Human Events when it was re-launched on 1 May. Human Events announced that Kassam would be leaving the outlet on 8 August.
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.
Political views
Kassam has described himself as a nationalist. His politics have frequently been described as far-right by mainstream commentators and sources.
UK Independence Party
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.
Leadership candidate
After the resignation of Diane James as UKIP leader in October 2016, Kassam launched a campaign to become the new leader.
Kassam "suspended", or withdrew, from the leadership contest on 31 October 2016, a few hours before nominations closed. Having concluded that he had only a slight chance of winning, citing insufficient funds, he criticised the media attention he received and was critical of what he claimed was media intimidation of his parents. He also questioned the fairness of a UKIP ballot. "When Times journalists show up at my elderly parents' house, intimidating them, I draw the line," he said.
Later developments
In his October 2016 Newsnight interview, Kassam suggested that Donald Trump would be a better President of the United States than Hillary Clinton. A few days after the result of the American presidential election was announced, Kassam accompanied Farage when the former UKIP-leader was the first British politician to meet President-elect Trump, at Trump Tower.
In December 2019, Kassam became editor-in-chief of The National Pulse, an American news website on the political right.
Publications
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. On 19 April 2018, Kassam self-published Enoch Was Right: 'Rivers of Blood' 50 Years On.
See also
In Spanish: Raheem Kassam para niños
