'Jesus and Mo' Debate

After Liberal Democrat prospective candidate Maajid Nawaz pointed out how he is was not offended by the charming satirical comic strip "Jesus and Mo", a mob of fascists and extremists launched a petition to have him deselected, and to (according to the comments from the supporters of the petition) have him executed/beheaded/tortured, etc.

Maajid Nawaz Must Be Free to Offend Muslims – and Christians Must Be Free to Offend Gays

Maajid Nawaz

TELEGRAPH BLOGS – BRENDAN O’NEILL: Yesterday, two very striking things happened on the freedom-of-speech front. First, the campaign in defence of Maajid Nawaz, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who has been harassed by an online mob of Islamists for saying he did not think the Jesus and Mo cartoons were offensive, stepped up a gear. Numerous newspaper columnists, bloggers and tweeters have rallied to Mr Nawaz’s defence, and a petition calling for the Lib Dems to offer him their full support now has close to 7,000 signatures. And second, the High Court in London ordered an investigation into the banning of an allegedly homophobic advert from British buses by Transport for London (TfL) in 2012. The Court said the ban might have been unjust and said it is now time to “re-examine whether… the poster could be used”.

Let me guess: you’ve heard a lot more about the first case, about Mr Nawaz’s travails, than you have about the second – right? Certainly there’s been far more coverage of the liberal online uprising in defence of Mr Nawaz’s right to tweet the secularist, mickey-taking Jesus and Mo cartoons than there has been of the High Court’s green light for an investigation into the banning of an anti-gay poster by TfL. Which is weird, because these cases are actually very similar. In both, an army of offence-takers sought to scrub from public view something they found repulsive – whether a tweet about Jesus and Mo or a poster putting forward a Christian take on homosexuality – and in both it was casually assumed that the rights of the offended should take precedence over the freedom of everyone else to tweet, read, see and hear certain risqué (allegedly) ideas. But only one case – Mr Nawaz’s – has become a cause celebre [sic] among liberals who profess an attachment to freedom of speech. Why? » | Brendan O’Neill | Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tommy Robinson Link with Quilliam Foundation Raises Questions

Maajid Nawaz and Tommy Robinson

THE GUARDIAN: Counter-extremism thinktank's decision to ally itself with former EDL leader is viewed by many as a high-stakes gamble

For a few briefly awkward seconds last Tuesday, the press conference to mark Tommy Robinson's exit from the English Defence League was delayed, as his new-found Muslim allies in a counter-extremism thinktank struggled to open the door to the room of waiting television cameras and journalists.

It was an uncharacteristic glitch for Maajid Nawaz, co-founder of the Quilliam Foundation and a man frequently described as smooth and slick by those who have followed his public profile over the years since his transition from teenage gang member through to jailed Islamist extremist and, most recently, would-be Liberal Democrat MP.

However, senior figures working in the growing field of the study of counter-extremism and the rehabilitation of former extremists have been viewing its link-up with Robinson as a high-stakes gamble that has raised serious questions about the motivations of an organisation that has played a particularly controversial role.

If the latest accounts - for the financial year up to March 2012 - filed by the Quilliam Foundation are anything to go by, the high-profile injection of publicity also comes at a time when it may be facing challenging financial circumstances.

Two years after the Home Office began to wind down its funding for the organisation, those accounts show that Quilliam was facing mounting debts, while having little in the way of relative assets. Income from training, consultancy and publications were haemorrhaging, while its income from grants and donations fell from just over £900,000 in 2011 to £532,099 in 2012. » | Ben Quinn | Saturday, October 12, 2013

Asking Women to Remove Veil Is Not Racist, Says Former Extremist

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Asking Muslim women to remove their veils is not racist or Islamaphobic, a former extremist who is now a Parliamentary candidate has said.

Maajid Nawaz, a British-born Muslim who has since renounced his views and is standing as a Liberal Democrat, said girls and women should remove their veils in classrooms, courts, and banks. His intervention came amid a growing political row over the issue.

Theresa May, the Conservative Home Secretary, said “women should be free to decide” for themselves whether to wear a veil. She said it was not for the state to “tell people what they should be wearing”, but added that at schools and courts removing veils may be a “practical necessity”.

Earlier this week, Jeremy Browne, the Lib Dem Home Office minister, told The Telegraph that there should be a “national debate” about whether veils should be banned in public.

MPs and senior judges subsequently called for national guidance to clarify the issue. Mrs May told Sky News that she did “not think the Government should tell women what they should be wearing”. » | Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent | Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Lib Dems Select Former Radical Islamist Maajid Nawaz as Parliamentary Candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn

BRENT & KILBURN TIMES: Former Muslim radical and author Maajid Nawaz has been selected as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn.

He won a majority of votes among local party members at a hustings held in West Hampstead last night.

Mr Nawaz, who was a member of hardline global Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, is the is the co-founder and chairman of Quilliam - a counter-extremism think-tank.

The organisation was set-up with Labour party member, Ed Husain, five years ago after publicly renouncing Islamist ideology following a stint in an Egyptian jail.

Mr Nawaz has also published a book Radical which follows his journey from religious extremist to pro-democracy campaigner. » | Amie Keeley | Friday, July 19, 2013

Related »

Lib Dems to Announce Parliamentary Hopeful for Hampstead and Kilburn Seat

HAM&HIGH: The Liberal Democrat Party will tonight announce its parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn.

Among the party’s shortlist of five hopefuls is former Muslim extremist and author Maajid Nawaz, who set-up Quilliam – the world’s first counter-extremism think-tank. He was recruited into the hardline global Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir as a teenager and spent time in an Egyptian jail as a political prisoner before becoming a democracy campaigner.

Last year, he published a memoir entitled Radical, which recounts his journey from religious extremist to publicly renouncing Islamist ideology. » | Amie Keeley | Thursday, July 18, 2013

Maajid Nawaz: A Global Culture to Fight Extremism

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Maajid Nawaz on BBC HARDtalk

Maajid Nawaz, a British-born Muslim who became a radical Islamist, was arrested and imprisoned in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt, but when he emerged from prison he renounced his former views and launched a campaign to counter Islamist ideology.

Quilliam Chairman and Co-founder Releases His Autobiography Radical
QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Radical – My Journey from Islamist Extremism to A Democratic Awakening is the story of a British-Pakistani born and raised in Essex, Maajid Nawaz, who was recruited into Islamism as a teenager. Abandoning his love of hip hop culture, he joined Hizb al-Tahrir, where he played a central role in the shaping and dissemination of an aggressive anti-West narrative, which included the creation of new international cells and the encouragement of military coups.

Arriving in Egypt the day before 9/11 to study as part of his Arabic and law degree, his Islamist views soon led to his arrest and incarceration. Whilst mixing with everyone from Sadat’s assassins to Liberal reformists, an intellectual transformation occurred and Amnesty International adopted him as a Prisoner of Conscience. Upon his release, Maajid renounced political Islamism, while remaining a Muslim, and now travels the world educating and inspiring young people about democracy through both Quilliam and Khudi. » | Thursday, July 05, 2012

New Dark Age Alert! Muslim Patrols Could Become More Prevalent and More Violent, Warns Anti-extremist
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Muslim patrols stalking British streets could become “a lot more dangerous” and perhaps even willing to maim or kill, the head of an anti-extremism organisation has warned.


As British jihadists venture abroad to capitalise on the aftermath of the Arab Spring and then return to the UK, they are likely to bring a greater level of violence back home, Maajid Nawaz, the chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, suggested.

His comments follow incidents in which groups of Muslim vigilantes, dubbing themselves 'Muslim Patrols' have approached Londoners and demanded they behave in an Islamic way by not drinking.

They have also told women to put more clothes on, claiming they are entering 'Muslim areas'.

Their actions could be “a sign of things to come” and are part of a pattern of extremism spreading across Europe in different forms, be it far right fascism or Islamism, Mr Nawaz said.

Writing in The Times, he said: “While this street-level problem festers across Europe, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are busy capitalising on the chaos of the post-Arab Spring world. » | Ross Silverman | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Maajid Nawaz in a 'One-on-One' with Riz Khan
Maajid Nawaz (born in 1977) is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Quilliam, a government-funded think tank based in London which dedicates itself to challenge religious extremism and to promote pluralism. Nawaz also founded a counter-extremist social movement in Pakistan named Khudi. Formerly involved in the global Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) for almost 14 years, he was on the United Kingdom national leadership for HT and a founding member of HT in Denmark and Pakistan.

Nawaz eventually served four years in an Egyptian prison where he began changing his views until finally renouncing the Islamist ideology while remaining Muslim. Nowadays, he is a member of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. Nawaz holds a Master degree in political theory from the London School of Economics.

Riz Khan (born in 1962) is a British television news reporter and international journalist at Al Jazeera English in Washington D.C. which he joined in 2005. He hosts the network's flagship programme Riz Khan, a daily, interactive global show and Riz Khan's One on One, a weekly profile show. Khan grew up in the then British colony of Aden in the former South Yemen. In 1993, he joined BBC and three years later CNN. Khan became widely known as a senior anchor and host of his own show, interviewing more heads of state and business personalities than any other global interactive news show presenter.

He left CNN in 2001 in order to found and run Colourblind Entertainment, an independent production company. Khan was educated in Great Britain and holds a postgraduate degree in radio journalism from the University of Portsmouth.


St. Gallen Symposium »

Johann Hari’s Viewpoint – Renouncing Islamism: To the Brink and Back Again
THE INDEPENDENT: A generation of British Islamists have been trained in Afghanistan to fight a global jihad. But now some of those would-be extremists have had a change of heart. Johann Hari finds out what made them give up the fight

British muslim Maajid Nawaz is the country's most famous former Islamist fanatic. Photo: The Independent
Ever since I started meeting jihadis, I have been struck by one thing – their Britishness. I am from the East End of London, and at some point in the past decade I became used to hearing a hoarse and angry whisper of jihadism on the streets where I live. Bearded young men stand outside the library calling for "The Rule of God" and "Death to Democracy".

In the mosques across the city, I hear a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist". Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. It shares my pronunciations, my cultural references, and my national anthem. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice.

The East End is a cramped grey maze of council estates, squashed between the glistening palaces of the City to one side and the glass towers of Docklands to the other. You can feel the financial elites staring across at each other, indifferent to this concrete lump of poverty dumped in-between by the forgotten tides of history. This place has always been the swirling first stop for immigrants to this country like my father – a place where new arrivals can huddle together as they adjust to the cold rain and lukewarm liberalism of Britain.

The Muslims who arrive here every day from Bangladesh, or India, or Somalia say they find the presence of British Islamists bizarre. They have come here to work and raise their children in stability and escape people like them. No: these Islamists are British-born. They make up 7 per cent of the British Muslim population, according to a Populous poll (with the other 93 percent of Muslims disagreeing). Ever since the 7/7 suicide bombings, carried out by young Englishmen against London, the British have been squinting at this minority of the minority and trying to figure out how we incubated a very English jihadism.

But every attempt I have made up to now to get into their heads – including talking to Islamists for weeks at their most notorious London hub, Finsbury Park mosque, immediately after 9/11 – left me feeling like a journalistic failure. These young men speak to outsiders in a dense and impenetrable code of Koranic quotes and surly jibes at both the foreign policy crimes of our Government and the freedom of women and gays. Any attempt to dig into their psychology – to ask honestly how this swirl of thoughts led them to believe suicide bombing their own city is right – is always met with a resistant sneer, and yet more opaque recitations from the Koran. Their message is simple: we don't do psychology or sociology. We do Allah, and Allah alone. Why do you have this particular reading of the Koran, when most Muslims don't? Because we are right, and they are infidel. Full stop. It was an investigatory dead end.

But then, a year ago, I began to hear about a fragile new movement that could just hold the answers we journalists have failed to find up to now. A wave of young British Islamists who trained to fight – who cheered as their friends bombed this country – have recanted. Now they are using everything they learned on the inside, to stop the jihad.

Seventeen former radical Islamists have "come out" in the past 12 months and have begun to fight back. Would they be able to tell me the reasons that pulled them into jihadism, and out again? Could they be the key to understanding – and defusing – Western jihadism? I have spent three months exploring their world and befriending their leading figures. Their story sprawls from forgotten English seaside towns to the jails of Egypt's dictatorship and the icy mountains of Afghanistan – and back again. >>> Johann Hari | Monday, November 16, 2009

In and Out of Islamism with Maajid Nawaz
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Former Radical Extremist: Radical Islam Similar to Marxism, Soviet Union
TOWNHALL.COM: A former leader of a radical Islamic organization told Congress extreme Muslims are motivated by an ideology similar to Marxism and that Islamism has much in common with the former Soviet Union.

Maajid Nawaz, a native of England and once prominent figure in the London-based extremist group Hizb ut-Tharir, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the root cause of Islamic terrorism was its fanatical ideology, not poverty or discrimination.

“There is a common misconception on the left in the UK that only grievances can lead to Islamism,” he said.

Nawaz drew parallels between socialist Marxism and Islamism, contending that both movements see everything as a global ideological power struggle. He said Islamists wished for the world to be ruled under a single caliphate state, “like the Soviet bloc.”

“There will always be a conflict between Islamism and capitalism, just as there was once conflict between communism and capitalism,” he said. Former Radical Extremist: Radical Islam Similar to Marxism, Soviet Union >>> By Matt Purple | July 11, 2008

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