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
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.
dogma mindset certain
Once you subscribe to an ideological dogma as a solution to certain grievances, it then frames your mindset.
total
Islam will be what Muslims make of it. And it is the sum total of the interpretation that Muslims give to it.
ideology impose seeks society
Islamism is an ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society.
I used to MC a bit when I was young - 14 or 15 years old.
east iraq threat west wider
The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.
discreet originally sanctuary tool western
Satire has been a sanctuary historically monopolized by progressives, originally used as a discreet tool against Western religious fundamentalism.
priority remain
Quilliam will remain a priority for me because its values shape my beliefs and outlook.
allowing cannot simply
Rather than allowing jihadists to shut down debate, it must proliferate so much that they simply cannot kill us all.
broader concerns treated
Broader social concerns within Muslim communities, such as discrimination, integration or socio-economic disadvantages, should be treated distinctively and not as part of counterterrorism agenda, which has been counter-productive.
acquainted against liberals pitfalls
Being veterans of the struggle to push back against fundamentalist Christians, American liberals are well acquainted with the pitfalls of the neoconservative flirtation with the religious-right.
conveying defend forced inherently oneself
To be forced to defend oneself is an inherently undesirable position to be in. The focus shifts from ideas to the person conveying them.
incident sounds suggest
To suggest that a Muslim cannot think for himself sounds to me very much like an incident of anti-Muslim bigotry.
family outside raised
I was born and raised in Essex, just outside London, to a financially comfortable, well-educated Pakistani family.