Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Raza Hasan (born July 1979) is a British-American political journalist, broadcaster and author of Indian descent.

Hasan has been the host of ''The Mehdi Hasan Show'' on Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC since February 2021.

In 2015, Hasan moved to Washington, D.C., United States to work full-time for Al Jazeera on '' UpFront''"Mehdi Hasan to host new weekly show on Al Jazeera"
, Al Jazeera, 18 December 2014 and host the ''Deconstructed'' podcast produced by the online publication ''The Intercept'' from 2018 to 2020.

Hasan is the author of ''Win Every Argument'', and the co-author of a biography of Ed Miliband and was formerly the political editor of the UK edition of ''The Huffington Post'' and the presenter of the Al Jazeera English shows: '' The Café'', ''Head to Head'' and ''UpFront''.

Early life and education

Mehdi Raza Hasan was born in Swindon to immigrant Indian Hyderabadi Shia Muslim parents from the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, South India (now in Telangana).

Hasan was privately educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, a day independent school for boys at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers District of Hertfordshire, near the town of Northwood in North West London. He then attended Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and graduated in 2000.

Career

Hasan worked as a researcher and then producer on LWT's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, with a brief period in between on BBC One's ''The Politics Show''. Following this, he became deputy executive producer on Sky's breakfast show ''Sunrise'' before moving to Channel 4 as their editor of news and current affairs."Mehdi Hasan joins HuffPo UK as political director"
, ''Press Gazette'' (website), 21 May 20123 He was appointed senior editor for politics at the ''New Statesman'' in late spring of 2009, where he stayed until May 2012, then becoming political director of ''The Huffington Post'' website.

Hasan became a presenter on Al Jazeera's English news channel in May 2012. Hasan has appeared (six times) on the BBC's ''Question Time'' programme, and the Sunday morning programmes ''The Big Questions'' and '' Sunday Morning Live''.

In 2013, Hasan took part in a debate at the Oxford Union to consider whether Islam is a peaceful religion. Hasan, who is an Ithna’Asheri Shia Muslim, vouched for Islam as a religion of peace, citing political and cultural reasons for violence in Muslim majority countries, as opposed to holding the religion of Islam responsible. In the vote on the motion, the house affirmed with Hasan and the other proposers that Islam is a religion of peace with 286 votes in favor and 168 votes against. The video of the debate remains one of the most viewed videos on Oxford Union's YouTube channel.

Recorded at the Oxford Union, ''Head to Head'' was a programme on Al Jazeera English in which Hasan interviewed public figures; it had run for three series by December 2014. Since 2015, working full-time for the network in Washington, D.C., Hasan has hosted a weekly interview and discussion programme.

Hasan began a podcast in 2018 entitled ''Deconstructed'', produced by the investigative journalism website ''The Intercept''. On air, Hasan would discuss recent news topics and host guests. Notable topics covered on the podcast include police brutality, inequality, QAnon, and President Donald Trump's activity on Twitter. Notable podcast guests have included Noam Chomsky, Ilhan Omar, and Bernie Sanders. On 2 October 2020, Hasan announced that he would no longer host the show as part of his move to host ''The Mehdi Hasan Show'' on NBC's new streaming service, Peacock.

Hasan became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 9 October 2020, in time to vote in the 2020 United States presidential election.

Hasan currently hosts ''The Mehdi Hasan Show'' on the online service Peacock since Oct 2020 airing weeknights at 7 pm Eastern. Notable guests on ''The Mehdi Hasan Show'' have included Mark Ruffalo, Jon Stewart, John Bolton, Keith Ellison, Ro Khanna, John Legend, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In March 2021, Hasan launched the same show on MSNBC every Sunday evening. He is also the fill-in host on MSNBC's ''All In with Chris Hayes'', ''The Rachel Maddow Show'', ''The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle'' and ''The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell''.

Views and opinions

Iraq

In a 14 February 2013 article for the ''New Statesman'', Hasan wrote:

The Iraq war was a strategic disaster – or, as the Tory minister Kenneth Clarke put it in a recent BBC radio discussion, 'the most disastrous foreign policy decision of my lifetime ... worse than Suez'. The invasion and occupation of the country undermined the moral standing of the western powers; empowered Iran and its proxies; heightened the threat from al-Qaeda at home and abroad; and sent a clear signal to 'rogue' regimes that the best (the only?) means of deterring a pre-emptive, US-led attack was to acquire weapons of mass destruction. ... Iraq has been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, as the direct result of an unnecessary, unprovoked war that, according to the former chief justice Lord Bingham, was a 'serious violation of international law'.

Iran

A regular contributor to ''The Guardian'', Hasan argued in November 2011 regarding the issue of Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons: "Wouldn't it be rational for Iran – geographically encircled, politically isolated, feeling threatened – to want its own arsenal of nukes, for defensive and deterrent purposes?"Mehdi Hasa
"If you lived in Iran, wouldn't you want the nuclear bomb?"
''The Guardian'', 17 November 2011 Pointing out the difference between America, and its allies, going to "war with non-nuclear Iraq" and their "diplomacy with nuclear-armed North Korea", Hasan concluded: "The simple fact is there is no alternative to diplomacy, no matter how truculent or paranoid the leaders of Iran might seem to western eyes."

Hasan wrote an article in ''The Guardian'' in September 2011 condemning the Iranian government for its proposed execution of Youcef Nadarkhani, who had been arrested on charges of apostasy. "The death sentence given to Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran is an affront to universal moral values and a disservice to Muslims."

Islam and Muslims

Hasan, a Shia Muslim, has written articles about Islam and Muslims for the ''New Statesman'' and newspapers. "My Islamic faith is based on the principles of peace, moderation and mercy", he wrote in September 2012. He also said that while Muslims "have every right to be angry", such "anger, however, is not an excuse for extremism."

In April 2009, Hasan argued against the concept and idea of an Islamic state. He argues that "Today it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a Muslim-majority nation that could plausibly be identified as a modern, viable and legitimate 'Islamic state'" and that "contrary to popular Muslim opinion, there is not a shred of theological, historical or empirical evidence to support the existence of such an entity."

In November 2009, Hasan wrote a column denouncing suicide bombing from an Islamic perspective. Hasan argued that "There is, in fact, nothing Islamic about so-called Islamic terrorism… So why are many Muslims so reluctant to condemn such cold-blooded tactics of terror?"

In April 2010, Hasan wrote a piece condemning the controversial Islamic advocacy of the death penalty for apostasy in the ''New Statesman''. He states that "The sharia (or Islamic law), it is claimed, sanctions the death penalty for any adult Muslim who chooses to leave the faith, or apostatise. This is an intellectually, morally and, perhaps above all, theologically unsustainable position."

In January 2012, Hasan wrote a piece emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the Holocaust as a "uniquely horrific crime against humanity," and called on British Muslims and the larger Muslim world to take it more seriously.

In April 2012, Hasan wrote an article criticising British Muslims

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