Dyab Abou Jahjah

Abou Jahjah was born and grew up in southern Lebanon in Hanin, near the border with Israel. He said that he had joined Hezbollah in its campaign against Israel and had some military training.^[1] He gained refugee status in 1996 and became a Belgian citizen through marriage to a Belgian woman, from whom he much later divorced. He is now married to a Belgian Muslim woman, Nabila Boujdaine of Moroccan origin, who was also on the electoral lists for his MDP party in 2004.^[2] N. Boujdaine is the sister of Saida from the book Saida, written by De Standaard journalist, Tom Naegels^[3] and is a partner in a new organisation, Safe Have Aid, established by Dyab Abou Jahjah and his brother.^[4]

Abou Jahjah has written several books, among them an autobiography titled Between Two Worlds: The Roots of a Freedom Struggle. He was also the subject of two political biographies, one written by Mohammed Benzakour^[5] and the other by Maroun Labaki, and a political analysis book written by the Belgian communist writer Ludo De Witte.^[6]

In 1991, at the age of 19, Abou Jahjah moved from Lebanon to Belgium.^[7] He studied at UCLouvain in Louvain-la-Neuve and obtained a master's degree in political science and International relations. After several odd jobs during his study time, including factory work and construction labour, he became the director of vzw Welkom, the immigrant working body for the ABVV trade union.^[8]

Abou Jahjah is an Arab nationalist in the Nasserite tradition and considers socialism to be a core paradigm to his thinking as it is not based on race or skin color.^[9] He believes immigrants should be treated as full citizens, rather than being treated as guests, and has expressed admiration for the American model of assimilation, saying: "America's race laws are more advanced than here. I have relatives in Detroit and they are Arab-Americans but they feel American. I don't feel European. Europe needs to make its concept of citizenship inclusive to all cultures and religions."^[10]

The Guardian wrote that Abou Jahjah was called “Belgium’s Malcolm X." According to a Flemish newspaper, Abou Jahjah supported the use of violence against foreign troops in Iraq. In a blog post, Abou Jahjah stated that his views were misrepresented and that "rejoicing the death of people, even enemy soldiers, is not something that I would do". After a Danish newspaper published negative portrayals of the prophet Muhammad, the Dutch arm of the AEL published a comic casting doubt on the Holocaust in 2010, for which it was fined. The organization said it was published to highlight a double standard regarding freedom of speech. After the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote a letter to then-home secretary Jacqui Smith in 2009, Abou Jahjah was banned from the UK. His political views and statements have sparked criticism and contributed to controversy over his associations, including with British politician Jeremy Corbyn.^[11][12]

In 2000, Abou Jahjah founded the Arab European League in Antwerp, a city with a large Muslim population. In the 2003 election, the Arab European League partnered with the Marxist-Leninist Workers' Party of Belgium to form the RESIST (electoral list), which failed to win any seats and soon dissolved.^[13][14] In 2004 he started the MDP, but this party didn't obtain any elected participants.^[15]

In 2001, Abou Jahjah founded the Sabra and Shatila committee, which brought a lawsuit against former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre^[16][17] that was committed in adjacent refugee camps during the Lebanese Civil War in 1982.^[18]