Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Usman Nawazis a British activist, author, columnist and politician. He was the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for London's Hampstead and Kilburn constituency in the 2015 general election. He is also the founding chairman of Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank that seeks to challenge the narratives of Islamist extremists...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionActivist
bound duty heretic hesitation individual liberalism mean speech
If liberalism is to mean anything at all, it is duty bound to support without hesitation the dissenting individual over the group, the heretic over the orthodox, innovation over stagnation, and free speech over offense.
basic desire irreverent question reduced
If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech.
background came emotional ferment fostered himself inquiring london maturity medical mind process question ripe straight
I had a mind inquiring enough to question world events, as well as the passion fostered by my background to care, but I lacked the emotional maturity to process these things. That made me ripe for Islamist recruitment. Into this ferment came my recruiter, himself straight out of a London medical college.
began change embraced form islam movements nation prior towards
Hip-hop in the '90s began moving towards the Nation of Islam and the 5 Percenters, black nationalist movements; very much so, these movements embraced a form of Islam: Malcom X's form of Islam prior to his change.
change open
Before someone can change his ideas, he has to open his heart.
chance engines extremist lead users
Chance explorations on search engines do not 'accidentally' lead users to extremist websites.
apart family
I come from an immigrant family, but I know no other nationality apart from British.
confidence inherent islam level majority muslims peace religion subscribe tells text war
I can say with a level of confidence that Islam is not a religion of war, only because the majority of Muslims don't subscribe to that perspective, not because there's something inherent in the text that tells me it's a religion of peace.
became severe
For my own part, once I became a teenager, I experienced severe and violent racism.
community criticize foreign-policy
I’m a Muslim, we come from a Muslim community and we are very critical of western or American foreign policy. So if I’ve got the right and if other Muslims have got the right to criticize… likewise everyone else has also got the right to criticize everything else.
islam i-can
I can now say that the more I learnt about Islam, the more tolerant I became.
desire islam ancient
Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society.
benefits globalization utilizing
Ironically, xenophobic nationalists are utilizing the benefits of globalization.
men young grievance
Preying on the grievances of disaffected young men is the bedrock of Islamism.