From Egypt to England; Khaled Hassan speaks on disavowing his antisemitic views and becoming Jewish
Khaled Hassan, an Egyptian political risk and intelligence analyst whose research looks at antisemitism, Islamism and conspiracy theories, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he recounted his story of how he went from living in Egypt and harbouring antisemitic views to living in the United Kingdom and not only disavowing those views, but converting to Judaism.
When Mr Hassan was asked what his impression of Jewish people was during his time in Egypt, he said: “This is actually one of the most difficult questions to answer. Not necessarily because I don’t know how to describe it but because I want to explain to someone born in Europe or the [United States] how it actually works.
“I think the best way to put it is, imagine you find out that your neighbour did something so hideous and horrible that the whole community just hates them. The whole community wants to avoid them because obviously, any association with them would actually also put you under scrutiny and people would question you, question your convictions. Sadly, this is how Jews are viewed in [much of] the Middle East, in Egypt and the Arab-speaking world.”
He continued: “[Jews are viewed as] this group of people who are fundamentally evil, who are fundamentally horrible, in a way, and that’s why nobody is even willing to consider Hebrew literature, everyone’s terrified of touching even one simple book. So that is really the perception that we’ve had, it’s one of suspicion, of fear, and obviously thinking that they are inherently evil. And education does reinforce it.”
Explaining how he unlearned these views, the political risk and intelligence analyst said: “I was very different from an early stage because I loved tourism, I loved seeing people from different places, I loved America. Unlike a lot of Egyptians, I loved the idea of American rights.”
Mr Hassan explained how the term ‘radicalisation’ is often misinterpreted as being inherently negative.
“It’s not always something bad,” Mr Hassan said. “A radical is just somebody who believes in views that are uncommon where they are, within their own environment. And it always begins with this sense of grievance, you always feel that something is wrong, and you need to right this wrong, and this is when you start to find answers to questions that you have. So this is precisely what happened to me when I was a teenager.
“In radicalisation, we call something a ‘cognitive opening’. It’s this willingness to actually listen, this willingness to actually hear information. For me, it all started when I started examining where I want to study. As a teenager, I just wanted to study somewhere where I could actually view these ideas, and that was always the U.S., so I would say this was really the changing point for me.
“And one of the key turning points for me was definitely my involvement in peace talks between Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Israelis, because I was very fortunate to be involved in some of these discussions on a grassroots level.”
On his conversion to Judaism, Mr Hassan said: “So that’s my journey; I started questioning all of these beliefs around me when I was a teenager and decided that I’m not going to inherit any beliefs, I will just find the beliefs that suit me. And it really took years. I examined different faiths and eventually made the decision that Judaism is right for me.”
Throughout the interview, Mr Hassan touched upon a variety of other issues including the Colleyville synagogue hostage attack, the ‘Free Palestine’ convoy in North London in May 2021 and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
The podcast with Mr Hassan can be listened to here, or watched here.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
