Scots Wha Hae’ Wi’ Wallace Bled: A Few Observations on First Minister Humza Yousaf 

The news from the land of the thistle, Harris tweeds, Flora MacDonald, and the Standing Stones of Callanish by now is well known: a certain Humza Yousaf, a Muslim who is infuriated that so many white people hold positions of power in Scotland, and is virulently anti-Israel, in March won the leadership contest of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and was elected First Minister of Scotland, despite being disliked by almost half of Scots, according to recent polling. On Sunday, he said that the campaign for Scottish independence was “stepping up a gear.” More on this curious figure can be found in this story that was written at the time of his victory: “Humza Yousaf wins SNP leadership contest to become first Muslim leader of Scotland,” by Thomas Brooke, Remix News, March 27, 2023:

…The Scottish health secretary will become the first Muslim to attain the role. He narrowly beat colleague and practicing Christian Kate Forbes by 52 to 48 percent once second preference votes were counted after outsider Ash Regan was eliminated in third place….

Kate Forbes, for example, who is a devout member of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland, was heavily criticized by parliamentary colleagues who supported Yousaf’s leadership campaign for her socially conservative views on issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

Kate Forbes is a devout Christian, always a dangerous thing to be these days. She opposes same-sex marriage. What a terrible troglodyte she must be – off with her head! Or at least, don’t vote for her.

During the campaign, Yousaf had claimed to be a supporter of gay marriage, keeping in line with the SNP’s liberal hierarchy who backed his bid, despite actually abstaining from the final vote on the matter in the Scottish parliament back in 2014. Critics of the politician suggested his media response on the matter, after Forbes had revealed her religious views would have prevented her from supporting the bill, showed he was happy to sell his soul for the top job.

Will Humza Yousef really support same-sex marriage when he assumes office? Let’s see how far he is willing to stray from Islam’s condemnation of homosexuality. Will he condemn “as a Muslim” that Islamic condemnation? At his swearing-in as First Minister, Yousaf recited his Oath of Office in Urdu.

The flagship policy of the Scottish National Party has been, and will continue to be, under Yousaf’s leadership, Scottish independence, and the incoming leader has vowed to use “any means necessary” to break Scotland away from the United Kingdom, insisting that nothing should be “off the table.”

We will be the generation to win independence for Scotland,” Yousaf said after the results were declared at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Monday, as he called the electoral success “the greatest honor and privilege” of his life.

The wider implications of Yousaf’s leadership victory among the Scottish electorate remain to be seen. Recent polling conducted last week showed the new SNP leader to be the most popular of the leadership candidates among 2021 SNP voters; however, he is the most disliked among all voters.

Just 22 percent of the Scottish electorate hold a favorable view of Yousaf, while 42 percent actively dislike him.

What’s wrong with Scottish voters? Yousaf is “the most disliked among all voters,” and just 22% of the electorate — about one out of five – has a favorable view of Yousaf. Yet he was nevertheless elected as First Minister. Fix that system.

The Scottish health secretary will become the first Muslim to attain the role. He narrowly beat colleague and practicing Christian Kate Forbes by 52 to 48 percent once second preference votes were counted after outsider Ash Regan was eliminated in third place.

The 37-year-old is expected to be formally sworn in as Scotland’s sixth first minister at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Wednesday, subject to a procedural parliamentary vote on Tuesday.

The leadership contest among Scotland’s largest parliamentary party exposed deep divisions among both the membership and its parliamentary cohort, and often turned rather unsavory with candidates attacking one another on controversial issues.

Kate Forbes, for example, who is a devout member of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland, was heavily criticized by parliamentary colleagues who supported Yousaf’s leadership campaign for her socially conservative views on issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

During the campaign, Yousaf had claimed to be a supporter of gay marriage, keeping in line with the SNP’s liberal hierarchy who backed his bid, despite actually abstaining from the final vote on the matter in the Scottish parliament back in 2014. Critics of the politician suggested his media response on the matter, after Forbes had revealed her religious views would have prevented her from supporting the bill, showed he was happy to sell his soul for the top job.

Yousaf has made several controversial remarks during his time in the Scottish cabinet, particularly around race, including an infamous rant in the Scottish parliament where he claimed the country has too many white people occupying key roles.

He went on to list a few dozen positions, after each of which he added that wicked word “white.” You can see his racist rant here, after which, you will need a wee dram of Glenmorangie to steady your nerves.

And Yousaf meant it. Too many white people in high positions. Deeply disturbing. But now he’s in the highest of all positions, and can do something about it. Of his first 50 hires for top spots in his new administration, at least forty of them should have been black or brown people, and ideally Muslim to boot. And while he is busy transforming Scotland into a place where that silly old flag — the St. Andrews Cross, white saltire on a blue background – will be pulled down, to be replaced by a new flag, the tricolor of black, brown, white that signifies Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, he will not forget to put out the welcome mat for as many migrants – Muslims, of course, deserve first dibs – who come to Scotland, whether they arrive by boat at Solway Firth, or the Firth of Forth, or make their way pedibus calcantibus from the sassenach’s lands to just over the English border, where Scottish buses will be waiting to pick them up and whisk them away to their new lodgings in accommodations similar to the three- and four-star hotels that Muslim migrants have already been occupying in nearly 500 cities and villages in England.

The Glasgow Herald columnist and former Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins, who has followed the resistible rise of Humza Yousaf, warned that Yousaf will take a hard line against Israel. He’s been pushing legislation that will allow governing public bodies to impose their own boycotts or sanction campaigns against foreign countries. This means Israel. This means BDS. Yet in mid-April, Yousaf resisted calls to brand Israel an “apartheid state.” Why he did so remains to be seen.

When he was 22, Humza Yusaf arranged a meeting with government officials for a Hamas leader: Mohammad Sawalha, whose nom de guerre is Abu Obada. Yousaf was working at the time as a parliamentary assistant for Scotland’s first Muslim Scottish member of Parliament, Bashir Ahmad. At the same time, Yousef, along with his cousin Osama Saeed, was running the Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF). Sawalha’s unsavory history was public knowledge at the time. The BBC in 2006 identified him as having “masterminded much of Hamas’ political and military strategy.” Before emigrating to the U.K., Sawalha was Hamas’s “military” chief in Judea and Samaria. Yousef has never apologized for arranging this meeting for a leader of a terror group.

Humza Yusaf likes to tweet about Israel, as here:

I know there is a lot of interest in domestic matters but the forced evictions taking place in #SheikhJarrah are a disgraceful violation of international law, rightly condemned by the UN. Israel must halt violence against those protesting.

 Those evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood are from property that has been owned by Jews since before 1948, and lived in by Arabs who have refused for years, In some cases even decades, to pay rent to the owners. These evictions are no different from the evictions that take place, for non-payment of rent, in London, or New York, or Edinburgh, or Glasgow.

Humza Yousaf’s wife, Nadia El-Nakla, has family in Gaza. Her father is Palestinian, and her brother still lives in Gaza with his family. She, and her husband, share tearful accounts of those terrible Israelis “raining rockets” on innocents in Gaza. Does anyone doubt that Humza Yousaf will pursue, as First Minister of Scotland, a virulently anti-Israel policy?

Humza Yusaf has urged for “Palestine to be recognized as an independent state,” called for an arms embargo against Israel, and said Gaza is a place “where people are starving and dying a slow death.”

SNP’s current coalition partners, the Scottish Greens, whom Yousaf intends to retain in office alongside him, also take the hardest of hard lines when it comes to Israel. Why the Greens in many countries, though by no means all, should be anti-Israel is a puzzlement. It’s not Israel, but the Gulf Arab states that in international forums have tried to block the swift transition from fossil fuels, and are thus part of the problem, while tiny Israel has become a world leader in solar energy. And thus is part of the solution that the Greens claim so fervently to desire.

Just 22 percent of the Scottish electorate hold a favorable view of Yousaf, while 42 percent actively dislike him.

Knowing what I know now, I’m with the 42%. What about you?