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
citizens communal express identities instead muslims public religious themselves wish
Not all Muslims wish to express themselves in public through a communal religious identity. Identities are multiple, and some may wish to speak instead just as citizens in their professional capacity, through their political party, or their neighborhood body.
bind option regarded religious seek seeking
A fatwa is a religious edict. Such edicts bind only those who seek to follow the Imam issuing them but can be regarded as an option for others seeking an alternative view.
among assumed cultural exit legal religious weakest whom
In today's Britain, the weakest among us are often assumed to be minority communities. In fact, the weakest are those minorities-within-minorities for whom the legal right to exit from their communities' constraints amounts to nothing before the enforcement of cultural and religious shaming.
religious community remember
Within our lifetime, we can remember a time when Islamism wasn't the dominant form of discourse or the aim should be to minimise the absolutists within any religious community and contain them.
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.