The Scottish National Party announced on Monday the selection of current health minister Hamza Yusuf as its leader to succeed Nicola Sturgeon, who announced her resignation from the leadership of the party and thus the presidency of the government, thus becoming the first Muslim prime minister in Scotland.
Hamza Yusuf is one of Scotland's top ministers and one of the SNP's best-known MPs and represents the city of Glasgow in the Scottish Parliament.
Yusuf served as health minister in Sturgeon's government, one of the strongest rising young faces in the Nationalist Party, which encouraged him to be one of the first to announce his intention to run to succeed the outgoing prime minister.
Within a decade, the name of Yusuf, a Muslim of Pakistani descent, has become a difficult figure in the Scottish political equation, holding a number of important ministerial positions, as well as serving on the team of two of Scotland's most important leaders over the past two decades, Sturgeon and former Prime Minister Alex Salmond.
Hamza Harun Yusuf was born in Glasgow on 7 April 1985, his father is Muzaffar Yusuf, who was born in Punjab, Pakistan, and immigrated with his family to Scotland in 1960, and his mother is Shaytsa Botha, who was born in Kenya and comes from a South Asian family.
Youssef, a father of a daughter, married to a Muslim nurse, lives with his family in Glasgow, and has no problem appearing with his mother, sisters and wife, all of whom are veiled women.
He entered politics through the gate of Parliament, through his work as an assistant to MP Bashir Ahmed, who was the first Muslim MP in Scotland in 2007, but this did not last long because Ahmed died months after his arrival in Parliament.
Youssef's entry into parliament has placed him under the watchful eye of a number of political leaders who have attracted him to their teams, perhaps the most important of which is Salmond, who then served as prime minister in 2008.
Then he moved to work as an assistant to Sturgeon, who was then one of the most important figures in the country, and this stage was the beginning of a strong political relationship between them, after which Youssef will assume a number of important ministerial positions.
In 2012, Yusuf was appointed to his first government position, as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations under Almond, and worked under the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs, at the time the first Muslim of Asian descent to hold a ministerial position.
He continued in this position, after Sturgeon became prime minister in 2014, and kept him in office until 2016 when he was appointed transport minister.
In 2018, Youssef served as Minister of Justice until 2021, during which time he entered into a battle to pass the "hate crimes" law, the purpose of which was to provide greater protection for minorities, emphasize hate crimes, and distinguish between freedom of expression and incitement against any component of society.
In 2021, Youssef assumed the position of Minister of Health and Social Work in the circumstances of the Corona pandemic, and during this period he was subjected to many criticisms, and found himself facing a storm when he asked people to think twice before calling the emergency, in order to relieve pressure on hospitals, which many considered to endanger people's lives and deprive them of health services.