Abid Raja

Abid Qayyum Raja (born November 5, 1975 in Oslo) is a Norwegian lawyer and politician of Pakistani descent. Raja has for several years kept a high media profile, often participating in television debates and public discourse.

A Norway Scholar at Wadham College at the University of Oxford, Raja also serves on a government advisory council. He frequently appears on debate programs on TV and regularly writes op-eds in national newspapers. Originally he became known to the public as the spokesman for Norway's Muslim community. Raja is a member of the Liberal Party of Norway, and won a seat in Akershus county council in the 2007 local election.

His views has made him a somewhat controversial figure within the more Conservative members of the Muslim community, such as his strong opposition to prearranged marriages.

As a child growing up in liberal Norway he was given corporal punishment by his Pakistani parents and as a result contacted child protective services on his own, who took him into protective care for six months^[1]. He has been an ardent opponent of spanking and corporal punishment of children ever since.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Media related to Abid Raja at Wikimedia Commons

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