Abid Raja

Abid Raja (2018)

Abid Qayyum Raja (born November 5, 1975 in Oslo ) is a Norwegian lawyer and politician from the Venstre . Since January 2020 he has been Minister for Culture and Equality in the Solberg government .

Life

Origin and education

Abid Raja is the son of Pakistani immigrants. Life in the family was characterized by violence and Raja reported his parents to the Norwegian Youth Welfare Office, which is why he was taken to a children's home. There he was mainly surrounded by criminal youths and he also dropped out of school during this time. After half a year he returned to his parents, who sent him to Pakistan. When he returned from there, he continued his school days in Norway.

Raja studied law at the University of Oslo from 1996 to 2001 . From 1999 to 2001 he was the spokesman for the World Islamic Mission in Oslo, the largest Norwegian-Pakistani mosque. Between 2003 and 2004 he studied psychology in a master's program at the University of Oxford . From 2000 to 2012 he worked in various positions as a lawyer. Between 2012 and 2013 he worked as a diplomat in the embassy in New Delhi .

Political career

Raja became the first vara representative in the former Akershus province in the 2009 parliamentary elections , so he barely made it into Storting . In the election in 2013 he was given a mandate and has since Storting deputy. On October 7, 2017, he was appointed fifth Vice-President of Parliament and was re-elected at the beginning of October 2019 for the period until September 2020. In his re-election, which some politicians of the Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) wanted to prevent, 31 Storting MPs did not vote for him, while the rest of the parliamentary presidency was elected unanimously. From January 2018 to January 2020 he was also deputy group leader of the Venstre.

From 2009 to 2011 he was deputy chairman of his party in Akershus, and until 2013 he also sat on the party's executive committee at the state level. Between 2009 and 2012 he was part of the board of the pro-European Europabevegelsen .

On January 24, 2020, he was introduced to the Solberg government as the new Minister for Culture and Equality. Raja replaced his party colleague Trine Skei Grande . He received the post after the Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) left the government and his party was therefore awarded a ministerial post . Due to his membership in the government, he has to suspend his parliamentary mandate , which is why Ingjerd Schou from the conservative Høyre party took over his office as the fifth Stortings Vice-President . On March 5, 2020, he was proposed by the party leadership as the second deputy chairman of his party. After party leader Grande announced her resignation in March, he was proposed again as second deputy in August 2020 with Guri Melby as chairman.

Private

Raja is married to the psychologist Nadia Ansar, whom he met during his time at the University of Oslo. They initially kept the relationship a secret for a long time because they were afraid that their families and the Pakistani community in Oslo would force them to separate again. They have three children together.

Political positions

Islam

After the attack on Charlie Hebdo , he criticized the head of the Islamic Council in Norway, Mehtab Afsar , who, in his opinion, did not distance himself clearly enough from the attacks. On Twitter he posted the message “The Prophet doesn't need cowardly Muslims to defend himself.” Raja also warned that such an attack could also take place in Norway and that it would not be a good strategy to use the religious community as a defense will. He also spoke of a Muslim culture in which children absorb hatred of Jews, homosexuals and Americans with their mother's milk.

Raja also spoke out in favor of expelling the imam who did not follow Norwegian law. In 2009, he suggested that the state employ imams to teach "real Islam" in schools. In 2016, he warned against a ban on burqas or niqabs , as it is not the task of the state to regulate the clothing of its citizens.

Criticism of the Fremskrittspartiet

In September 2019 he accused the Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) of "brown propaganda". The latter had previously published election posters with a photomontage of a boat in the sunset, warning of a "creeping Islamization". This then led to a government dispute, since at that time both the FrP and Raja's party were involved in the Solberg government . He later said in a Facebook post that it was not his intention to call the FrP Nazis, because he did not personally associate the color brown with National Socialism. After the FrP left the government , in which the FrP promised to continue working with the government, Raja's appointment as Minister of Culture was described by the FrP as a provocation.

Awards

In 2003, Raja was awarded the Norwegian Oxford Scholarship. In 2008 he was named “Man of the year” by the African society . In 2010 he was also awarded the Fritt Ord Prize .

Works

• 2008: Talsmann
• 2010: Dialogue: om vold undertrykkelse og ekstremisme

Web links

Commons : Abid Raja  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Abid Raja at the storting (Norwegian, English )
• Abid Raja in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Trine Bråthen: Abid Q. Raja ble født uten ends poor. April 21, 2008, accessed on September 16, 2019 (Bokmål in Norwegian). 
2. ^ TV 2 AS: Abid Raja havnet påglichcelle. Retrieved September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
3. ↑ Eivind Molde: 31st blankt da Raja ble gjenvalgt som visepresident. October 1, 2019, accessed October 2, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
4. ↑ David Vojislav Krekling: Her er Solberg-regjeringen 4.0. January 24, 2020, accessed on January 24, 2020 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
5. ↑ Håvard Grønli: Valkomiteen vil at Trine Skei Grande Skal halde fram. In: NRK. March 5, 2020, accessed March 5, 2020 (Norwegian Nynorsk). 
6. ↑ Alf Bjarne Johnsen, Runa Fjellanger, Eirik Mosveen: Trine Skei Grande går av - trekker seg som partileder and statsråd, and tar ikke gjenvalg. In: Verdens Gang. March 11, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
7. ↑ Lars Kristian Solem: - Jeg tror det blir veldig fint å samarbeide med Abid. In: Dagens Næringsliv. August 23, 2020, accessed August 23, 2020 (Norwegian). 
8. ↑ Møttes i hemmelighet på Burger King: - Skulle ønske jed var mer modig. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (Bokmål in Norwegian). 
9. ↑ Thomas Spence: Statsråd Abid Raja: - Jeg er født med utestemme. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (Bokmål in Norwegian). 
10. ↑ Eividn Sæther: For konge og fedreland. January 16, 2015, accessed September 16, 2019 (Norwegian). 
11. ↑ Oddvin Aune: - Jeg ble også slått i moskeen. June 9, 2009, accessed September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
12. ↑ Shakil Rehman: Vi trenger dem ikke! August 24, 2009, accessed September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
13. ↑ Venstre-Raja kraftig ut mot burka - og nikabforbud. Retrieved September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
14. ^ Svein Vestrum Olsson: Raja mener Frp Fremdmer «brun propaganda». September 13, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
15. ↑ TV 2 AS: - Helt uakseptabelt å stille seg bak Rajas uttalelser. Retrieved September 16, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
16. ^ Marte Klausen: Abid Raja: - Ikke min hensikt å kalle Frp nazister. September 17, 2019, accessed September 26, 2019 (Norwegian). 
17. ^ Camilla Wernersen: Siv Jensen reagerer på at Hareide blir statsråd. January 24, 2020, accessed on January 25, 2020 (Norwegian Bokmål).