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Robina Qureshi (born 1967 in Glasgow) is a Scottish human rights campaigner. She is Director of Positive Action in Housing , a charity set up to fight racism and discrimination, particularly against visible minorities, new migrants and refugee communities.
Background
Qureshi's parents came to Glasgow as immigrants in the 1960s, where they raised Qureshi and her six sisters in the Southside. Her father was a bus conductor and then later a shop keeper.
Human rights work
Qureshi is a notable critic of the UK's asylum policies and has campaigned to close detention centres for asylum seekers. In September 2005, Qureshi travelled to Albania with a film crew on a "fact finding mission" after taking up the case of the Vucaj children. The children were expelled to Kosovo in two dawn raids after living in Glasgow for five years as asylum seekers. Subsequently, she has been at the forefront of challenging dawn raids against Scotland's asylum seekers, taking part in protests at Home Office buildings with other high profile campaigners including Paddy Joe Hill of the Birmingham Six, Tommy Sheridan MSP, Sandra White MSP and actor Peter Mullan. Malcolm Chisholm MSP, Minister for Communities in the Scottish Executive, joined Qureshi in citicising the "heavy-handed" immigration policies, describing her as "a very formidable campaigner and completely dedicated to the housing and other rights of visible minorities."
In 2003, she led a campaign to close down Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre, in Scotland, where families from refugee communities are incarcerated. She also called for an amnesty for asylum seeking families in Scotland.
Qureshi has been a vocal critic of UK policies on civil liberties, comparing the UK Government's attitude towards the threat of homegrown Islamic extremist terrorism and the subsequent impact on the Muslim community to the experience of the Irish community in 1970s and 1980s Britain. She stated that, "it has been made very clear that the Muslim community should expect to be singled out and stigmatised. People will feel they are being targeted as a potential terrorist, which is the wrong way to protect the community. Only this time the names will be Muslim, rather than Irish."
Between 1998 and 2000, Qureshi worked with human rights lawyer, Aamer Anwar, to campaign on behalf of the family of murdered Indian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokhar. She also served on the Lawrence Steering Group. She has led campaigns to stop extreme far right groups from organising or gaining a platform in Scotland and is opposed to the American and British invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Controversy
In November 2005, New Labour politician Tom Harris MP, criticised Positive Action in Housing's stance on dawn raids, claiming the charity went too far in urging direct action to stop failed asylum seekers being removed. Harris had called for funding to the charity to be withdrawn because they "provoke violence against immigration officers" and circulate "rumours and innuendo as fact". Qureshi robustly defended her charity's campaign, claiming they acted "extremely responsibly ... to end dawn raids" and that the charity has "never in our lifetime been anything other than cross party political."
On December 11, 2005, Respect MP George Galloway defended Qureshi in his regular column in the Mail on Sunday, claiming she was subjected to the "bully boys of New Labour" after having "spoken out of turn"
In July 2006, Qureshi was accused of verbally abusing News of the World sex-columnist Anvar Khan in relation to the journalist's alleged affair with former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan. According to Khan's version of events in the Sheridan v News International court case, Qureshi offered a written apology for the incident.
In Oct 2006, personal details of Qureshi and other anti-racist campaigners were posted on Redwatch, a neo-Nazi website that takes its name from an anti-communist Combat 18 slogan. The Sunday Herald reported that the activists are in danger of attacks, noting that individuals associated with the site have been have been blamed for "the serious assault of a TUC leader, accused of following campaigners and journalists to their homes, firebombing cars and intimidating other individuals using phone calls, hatemail and email.
Film work
Qureshi has been in several films and television dramas, including American Cousins, Buried, The Key, Proof 2, and the controversial Gas Attack, for which she shared a best actress award at the 2001 Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish & British Film.
References
- Positive Action in Housing website. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- ^ Supporters visit deported family. BBC News, 10 October, 2005. Retrieved 4 December, 2006 Cite error: The named reference "BBC2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Exchange over asylum row tactics. BBC News, 27 November, 2005. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- Louis Julienne. Profile: Robina Qureshi - Positive Action in Housing. Electronic Immigration Network, June/July, 2006. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- Lucy Bannerman. Politics of paranoia. Al-Ahram Weekly, 24 March, 2005. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- Tina Smith. Disquiet at far-right activity. Institute of Race Relations, 24 March, 2004. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- Julia Day. Sex columnist reveals Sheridan kiss-and-tell plot. The Guardian, 11 July, 2006. Retrieved 4 December, 2006
- Neo-Nazi Extremists Issue Threats, Hate Mail Against Scottish Politicians and Racial Equality Activists. The Sunday Herald, 8 October, 2006.
- Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish & British Film: 2001. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 4 December, 2006