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
chance engines extremist lead users
Chance explorations on search engines do not 'accidentally' lead users to extremist websites.
addressing against approach french online stance tackling taken
The British and French governments have taken a strong stance against 'extremist content' online when addressing their approach to tackling extremism.
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.
allowing cannot simply
Rather than allowing jihadists to shut down debate, it must proliferate so much that they simply cannot kill us all.
britain extremists grievances identified integrate islamists taken ways
For years, Islamists and other extremists have taken advantage of grievances of Muslims in Britain and have successfully identified ways to integrate them under one 'Islamic' banner.
challenged life
Having our fundamental assumptions about life challenged is never a comfortable thing.
aftermath imprisoned people september state
I was imprisoned in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks, when Egypt's state security was rounding people up in unprecedented numbers.
held
I was held in the Mazra Tora Prison for my role as leader of the pan-Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir in Alexandria.
lost religion
I say I haven't lost my religion. I've lost my ideology.
liberal upbringing
My upbringing was completely liberal from the start. In fact, I didn't even have a Muslim identity.
apart family
I come from an immigrant family, but I know no other nationality apart from British.
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.
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.
became severe
For my own part, once I became a teenager, I experienced severe and violent racism.