Under Fire by Humza Yousaf review: 'gripping'

The main narrative of Under Fire, though, focusses on the four grim weeks after 7 October 2023 when Yousaf’s parents-in-law, Dundee couple Maged and Elizabeth El-Nakla, were trapped while visiting Maged’s family in Gaza, during the first wave of the Israeli government’s all-out assault. These were weeks of horror for everyone watching events in Gaza, as vast areas of its historic cities were reduced to rubble, civilian casualties mounted, and food, water and aid supplies were increasingly cut off.

For the new First Minister, though, all of this was intensely and chillingly personal; as his wife Nadia despaired of ever seeing her parents again, his little daughter Amal asked repeatedly when her beloved grandparents would be home, and Elizabeth’s text messages from Gaza became increasingly desperate. Yousaf found himself in office as First Minister, but effectively powerless to help his elderly in-laws; and it took almost four agonising weeks, and two nerve-racking failed attempts, before Elizabeth and Maged, as British citizens, were finally permitted to leave.

During those weeks, Yousaf was also navigating his first SNP Party Conference as leader, the usual barrage of hostile political comment from all sides, a crisis caused by severe floods in Deeside, and the need to deal - as the first Muslim leader of any western country - with the high emotions roused by the crisis in both Muslim and Jewish communities in Scotland; and this is the story he tells, with unfailing energy and vividness, in his short 180-page account of those weeks.

The book therefore reads like a gripping - if sometimes slightly repetitive - personal report from the front line of the frightening waves of violence and hatred now sweeping our world. As a Muslim born and raised in Glasgow, Humza Yousaf is of course no stranger to racism; his book begins with the moment in primary school when his best friend told him he couldn’t play with him any more, because he was “a Paki”.

His political career was shaped, though, by a fervent belief not only in a multicultural, forward-looking Scotland where those views would be in a tiny minority; but also in a wider world in which such a Scotland could take its place, shaped by the UN Charter and the values it embodies.

The most poignant parts of this book are therefore the paragraphs, towards the end, where he confronts the full collapse of that rules-based international order in relation to Gaza, and other current wars of aggression. He says that he no longer believes those responsible will necessarily be held to account for their war crimes and crimes against humanity; and that truth, he says, pains him "to the core”.

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Yet in or out of front-line politics - he left the Scottish Parliament in May 2026 - Yousaf seems unlikely to give up on the struggle to make those values a reality in an imperfect world. In a sense, he has been under fire all his life, for his identity as a western Muslim; just type his name into any social media platform to see the hate-mongering bile for yourself.

That experience can build strength and wisdom, though, in those who survive it with their values intact. Humza Yousaf has his much-loved family, his wealth of political experience, his liberal but profound religious faith, and the support of an impressive network of allies and former colleagues, some quoted on the cover of this vigorous and sometimes inspiring book; and Scotland can be sure it will be hearing more of him, in the years and decades to come.

Under Fire: My Family’s Escape from Gaza and the Cost of Leadership, by Humza Yousaf, Bridge Street Press, £25

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