Maajid Nawaz | |
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.jpg) Nawaz in October 2018 | |
| Born | Maajid Usman Nawaz (1977-11-02)2 November 1977 (age 48) Southend-on-Sea, England |
| Occupation | Author · Founder ofQuilliam |
| Education | SOAS, University of London (BA) London School of Economics (MSc) |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Subject | Islamism · Liberalism |
| Notable works | Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism On Blasphemy Islam and the Future of Tolerance |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Maajid Usman Nawaz (Urdu:[ˈmaːdʒɪd̪nəwaːz]; born 2 November 1977)[1] is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of the think tankQuilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of anLBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays. Born inSouthend-on-Sea,Essex, to aBritish Pakistani family, Nawaz is a former member of theIslamist groupHizb ut-Tahrir. His membership led to his December 2001 arrest in Egypt, where he remained imprisoned until 2006. While there, he read books abouthuman rights and made contact withAmnesty International who adopted him as aprisoner of conscience. He left Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2007, renounced his Islamist past, and called for asecular Islam. Later, Nawaz co-founded Quilliam with former Islamists, includingEd Husain.[2]
In 2012, Nawaz published an autobiography,Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism, and has since become a prominent critic ofIslamism in the United Kingdom. His second book,Islam and the Future of Tolerance (2015), co-authored withatheist authorSam Harris, was published in October 2015. He was theLiberal Democrats parliamentary candidate for London'sHampstead and Kilburn constituency in the2015 United Kingdom general election.[3] Since 2020, Nawaz has been accused of promoting false claims andconspiracy theories, including those related toCOVID-19 and the2020 United States presidential election.[4][5][6]
Nawaz was born inSouthend-on-Sea,Essex, to parents of Pakistani origin.[7] His mother, Abi, moved to Southend with her family when she was nine. His father, Mo, is an electrical engineer who had worked for thePakistan Navy but had to leave on medical grounds after he contractedtuberculosis.[8] After moving to the United Kingdom, Nawaz's father worked for an oil company inLibya, and moved between Libya and the United Kingdom until his retirement. Nawaz has an elder brother and a younger sister. In his memoirRadical, he uses thepseudonym Osman to refer to his brother.[8]
Nawaz was educated atWestcliff High School for Boys, a grammar school inWestcliff-on-Sea, a suburb of Southend.[9] Later, he studied law and Arabic atSOAS, University of London, and earned his master's degree inpolitical theory from theLondon School of Economics.[10]
Nawaz says that racism from classmates,Combat 18 gangs, and police, and feeling divided between his Pakistani and British heritage, meant he struggled to find his own identity growing up.[2][11][12] His elder brother, referred to pseudonymously as Osman, was recruited intoHizb ut-Tahrir (HT) by Nasim Ghani, who would later become the British leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Osman subsequently persuaded Nawaz to attend HT meetings held in Southend homes.[13] At those meetings, recruits were shown videos ofBosnian Muslims being massacred.[14] Watching these videos eventually resulted in Nawaz's formal recruitment in the HT.[11]
While a student atNewham College and then at SOAS, Nawaz quickly rose through the ranks. By the age of 17, he was recruiting students fromCambridge University, and by 19 he was on the national leadership of HT in the United Kingdom.[15] He became a national speaker and an international recruiter for Hizb ut-Tahrir, travelling to Pakistan and Denmark to further the party's ideology and set up organisationalclandestine cells.[11]
As part of his bachelor's degree in law and Arabic, Nawaz spent a compulsory year abroad in Egypt, arriving just one day before the9/11 attacks took place.[16][17] Since political Islamist organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir were banned in Egypt, Nawaz was arrested and interrogated inAlexandria by the Egyptian security agencyAman al-Dawlah. Like most foreign prisoners, he was not subjected to torture but faced the threat of torture during interrogation and witnessed other prisoners being tortured.[11][18] He was then transferred toTora Prison and put on trial. Represented bySadiq Khan, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.[19][20] During the trial, he was adopted byAmnesty International as aprisoner of conscience,[11][21][22] and this helped him to secure his return to London.[23]
While imprisoned in Tora Prison, Nawaz came across a wide spectrum of Muslims with varying ideological leanings, includingjihadists,Islamists,Islamic scholars, and liberal Muslims.[24] Among the jihadists were the members of the terrorist organisational-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, and the assassins of former Egyptian presidentAnwar Sadat.[24] He met IslamistEssam el-Erian, the spokesman of theMuslim Brotherhood,[25] andMohammed Badie, who in his youth had smuggled the manuscripts ofSyed Qutb's Islamist manualMilestones out of prison, and had it published.[12][24]
Among the Islamic scholars, Nawaz continued his studies sitting with graduates of Cairo'sAl-Azhar University andDar al-'Ulum.[26] He specialised in the Arabic language whilst studying historical Muslim scholastics, sources ofIslamic jurisprudence,Hadith historiography, and the art ofQur'anic recitation. He also committed half of theQur'an to memory.[27] On the liberal end of the spectrum, he befriended author and sociologistSaad Eddin Ibrahim. He also benefited from the company of imprisoned Egyptian politicianAyman Nour, who was the head of thecentrist and liberalTomorrow Party and a runner-up to the2005 Egyptian presidential election.[28][29] By 2007, Nawaz had renounced his Islamist past and called for asecular Islam.[30] In an interview with American broadcasterNational Public Radio, Nawaz explained how, other than the interactions in prison,George Orwell's novelAnimal Farm played a major role in his turnaround.[12]
| Part ofa series on |
| Criticism of Islamism |
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Non-Muslim Critics |
After completing his prison term in Egypt, Nawaz returned to the United Kingdom in 2006. In 2007, he resigned fromHizb-ut-Tahrir and resumed hisbachelor's degree at SOAS.[31][32] He then founded theQuilliam Foundation, a counter-extremismthink tank. He addressed theUnited States Committee on Homeland Security on the subject of Islamist extremism.[33] He also spoke at the Sovereign Challenge conference organised byUnited States Special Operations Command where he advocated the need to move beyondhard power, and look at new counter-radicalisation strategies.[34]
Nawaz played a major role inTommy Robinson's exit from the far-rightEnglish Defence League (EDL), of which Robinson was the founder. He met Robinson in 2013 during the filming of aBBC documentaryWhen Tommy met Mo, and subsequently met the EDL's co-leader, Kevin Carroll. Nawaz's personal story of turning back from Islamist extremism, and his counter-extremism work at Quilliam Foundation, encouraged Robinson and Carroll to quit the EDL.[35] Later, Robinson also apologised to Muslims for the fear caused by his EDL activism.[36] The move was hailed by Quilliam as "a huge success in community relations in the United Kingdom", and a continuation of combating all kinds of extremism, including Islamism andneo-Nazism.[37]
In July 2012, Nawaz published his autobiography,Radical. The Quilliam Foundation Ltd was put into liquidation on 9 April 2021.[38]
Nawaz has co-founded an activist group in Pakistan, named Khudi, which aims to combat extremism.[39] In 2009, with a BBCNewsnight crew and security team, Nawaz embarked on a counter-extremism tour, speaking at over 22 universities, and recruiting students all over Pakistan.[40]
Nawaz was selected in July 2013 to stand as theLiberal Democrats candidate for the marginal north London constituency ofHampstead and Kilburn, in which he came third.[41] With the delegation ofLiberal Democrat Friends of Israel he visited both sides of theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict.[42]
In September 2013, Nawaz and hisCamden District team was given the Dadabhai Naoroji Award for support and promotion ofBAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups) party members.[43] The award was presented by then-party presidentTim Farron. In the same year, he was included inThe Daily Telegraph's list of 50 most influential Liberal Democrats.[44]
In 2014, Nawaz received death threats after tweeting aJesus and Mo cartoon alluding to the Islamic prophetMuhammad.[45] Nawaz decided to tweet the cartoon after aBBC programme censored two audience members' shirts displaying cartoons of Muhammad.[46]Respect Party politicianGeorge Galloway called on Muslims, via a tweet, not to vote for the Liberal Democrats while Nawaz is one of their candidates.[45][47] By 24 January, a petition to the Liberal Democrats leaderNick Clegg demanding that Nawaz should be removed as a parliamentary candidate for the party had received 20,000 signatures.[46] Petition organisers denied a connection to its alleged originator, the Liberal Democrats memberMohammed Shafiq, and condemned the incitement to murder.[48] On 26 January, Clegg defended Nawaz's right to free expression and said that the death threats were not acceptable.[48]
On 2 July 2020, Nawaz announced his resignation from the Liberal Democrats.[49]
From September 2016 to January 2022, Nawaz hosted anLBC radio show on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.[50][51] On 7 January 2022, LBC announced on Twitter that Nawaz would no longer present at LBC, effective immediately.[51] His firing came weeks after fellow host Iain Dale accused him of spreading ‘deranged rubbish’ concerning coronavirus vaccines. Nawaz wrote that mass vaccination during a pandemic with a jab not tested for long-term side-effects "could be doing more harm than good",[52] In response, he told his Twitter followers to subscribe to his newsletter, telling them the show was his family's "only source of income".[53]
In October 2016, theSouthern Poverty Law Center in the United States accused Nawaz of being an "anti-Muslim extremist",[54] for which it was subsequently criticised by various media outlets,[55] includingThe Atlantic,[56]The Spectator,[57] andThe Wall Street Journal,[58] and Nawaz himself.[59] TheLantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice wrote a public letter to the SPLC urging it to retract the listing.[60] Nawaz announced his intention to file a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC on the 23 June 2017 episode ofReal Time with Bill Maher.[61] The SPLC deleted the HTML version of its list in April 2018.[62]
In June 2018, the SPLC apologised and paid $3.375 million to Nawaz and Quilliam "to fund their work to fight anti-Muslim bigotry and extremism".[63][64] As part of the settlement, the then SPLC presidentJ. Richard Cohen made a video apology,[65] and released a statement of apology to Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation.[66] The agreement stipulated that the SPLC's apology was to be prominently displayed on various pages on their website, as well as distributed to every email address and mailing address on the SPLC mailing list.[67]
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Nawaz has criticised what he terms as theregressive left, which he described in 2012 as left-leaning people who—in his opinion—pander to Islamism, which he defines as a "global totalitarian theo-political project" with a "desire to impose any given interpretation of Islam over society as law".[68] in 2016 he used the termcontrol left, which he has described as the left-wing equivalent to thealt-right, to refer groups or individuals who he says support "post factual behaviour, violence being seen as an option and prioritising group identity over individual rights" and "they want to control our lives, control what we think, control how we even feel."[69]
Nawaz has been critical ofmulticulturalism, and he criticises what he describes as the failed 1990s policies on multiculturalism in Britain and Europe. He has argued that multiculturalism has failed ethnic minorities by not promoting integration, inhibiting social mobility in employment and gender inequality in Muslim communities, and has encouraged bigotry of low expectations. Nawaz has instead argued in favour of what he termsomniculturalism and integration, stating that both are more culturally and economically beneficial to minority communities.[70]
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Nawaz votedRemain and was opposed toBrexit during the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. Following the referendum, he argued that other Remain supporters needed to accept the result and that the outcome was "not all good news, but it's also not all bad news." Nawaz opined in 2020 that Brexit could enable the country to participate in aCANZUK agreement and forge an era of new alliances to counter the influence of China on the West.[71]
Nawaz maintained in 2017 that while he is pro-immigration and supports accepting refugees, he also opined that the open border policy pursued by German chancellorAngela Merkel was a mistake in terms of national security, social integration, and fueling support for the far-right in Europe, and it had contributed to the Brexit result.[72]
Nawaz opposesScottish independence. In a 2020 article forUnHerd, he described theScottish National Party as presenting a progressive image but using xenophobic sentiments. He also accused the party of "whitewashing" history over British colonialism to make Scotland appear as if it was colonised by England and played no role in the building of theBritish Empire.[73]
Nawaz has expressed opposition to demolishing statues and references to British historical figures in public spaces over past historical comments. In 2018, he criticised students from his alma-mater,SOAS University of London, who protested against aWinston Churchill themed café in London. He argued that while Churchill may have expressed controversial opinions, they should not be judged by modern standards, and said that "if we can't celebrate him, who can we celebrate?"[74] In 2021, in response to theBlack Lives Matter protests in the United Kingdom in which statues of historical figures were pulled over, Nawaz expressed agreement with the communities secretaryRobert Jenrick that "community consultation" should be adopted as to whether the statues remain. He argued that the removal of statues "shouldn't be done unilaterally and it certainly shouldn't be done by the mob."[75]
Nawaz criticisedDonald Trump over his proposal for a temporary ban on entry of Muslims into the United States during his 2016 presidential campaign. Following Trump's victory in the2016 United States presidential election, Nawaz argued that the result came in part because of the left's failure to acknowledge white working-class voters who are statistically underrepresented in universities or employment. He stated that "Trump won because the hard left has abandoned the facts almost as quickly as the hard right."[76] After Trump assumed the presidency, Nawaz praised elements of the administration's policies, including attempts to negotiate peace talks withKim Jong Un and attempts to sort out financial issues inNATO. He said that American liberals had been hypocritical in their criticisms of Trump compared to previous presidents.[77] After the2020 United States presidential election, Nawaz argued that the public should "evaluate the policies and not the personality" when discussing Trump's legacy.[78] Nawaz views the 2020 election result as rigged, and has said that theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack was organised by anti-fascist organisations rather than supporters of Trump.[4]
Following themurder of George Floyd, Nawaz expressed support for peaceful demonstrations against racism, drawing upon his own experiences of racial prejudice growing up. He argued against using violent tactics.[79] He blamed rioting and damage to businesses on the "uniformed, masked, majority-white, far-left", and "spoiled-brat, privileged, gentrifying,Antifa-clad, anarchist rioters." He argued that violence and damage caused by white rioters would lead to over-policing of black neighborhoods.[80]
In the 2010s, Nawaz opposedracial profiling of Muslims,extrajudicial detention of terror suspects,torture,targeted killings, anddrone strikes.[81][82] In the aftermath of the2015 San Bernardino attack, during which a debate about profiling occurred, Nawaz said that racial or religious profiling was a "terrible measure" that "does not prevent terrorism".[83] He also opposed theTerrorism Act 2000, under which he was himself once detained, and called for the universalright to legal representation andright to silence in all cases and for all suspects.[84] In a 2008 talk atGeorge C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, he suggested a revisit of the British government's historical approach to dealing with terrorism, and called for a more nuanced response to tackling the ideology ofIslamism without breaching fundamental liberties of citizens.[85] According to him, security should never debase citizens of theircivil liberties.[84]
In 2009, Nawaz was among the twelve advisers to British government who wrote an open letter to the then prime ministerGordon Brown asking him to hold Israel accountable for its attacks on the Gaza Strip.[86] He opposesHamas, which he considers a terrorist organisation.[87] Nawaz has expressed support for Israel in his commentary, and criticised those who he says useanti-Zionism to promoteantisemitic beliefs. He has also opined thatopposition to Israel is "the mother of allvirtue-signals". In 2018, he was shortlisted as a contender for theTimes of Israel "communal ally of the year" of non-Jews "who has used their voice to fight anti-Semitism or delegitimization of Israel or has simply supported the community in the media, in politics or elsewhere over the last two years."[88]
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"It's not Islamophobic to scrutinise Islam just as it's not Christianophobic to scrutinise Christianity."
In 2015, Nawaz used the termVoldemort effect which pertained to analysts being fearful to call out the ideology of Islamism as the underlying cause ofJihadist terrorism.[90]
In a 2017 essay forThe Wall Street Journal, Nawaz stated thatjihadists of all types seek to create discord by "pitting Muslims against non-Muslims in the West and Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims in the East". He argued that theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is out to provoke a Clash of Civilisations, which can be avoided by calling out the underlying Islamist ideology and isolating jihadists from ordinary Muslims. He also took exception toPope Francis's characterisation of theNovember 2015 Paris attacks as the start of aWorld War 3; he said that it is not another world war but a global jihadist insurgency.[91] In the same piece, he said aninsurgency is different from aconventional war in that insurgents rely on some level of support from the communities they recruit from. Since it is an insurgency, thecounter-insurgency strategy should have messaging and psychological warfare as its critical parts, with the aim of isolating insurgents from their target host communities.[91] On a physical level, he supported the idea of an international coalition against ISIL, fronted bySunni Arab forces and backed by international special forces.[91]
In a 2015CNN interview, Nawaz condemnedDonald Trump's remarks about his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.[92] He said that when leaders pump up their followers by promising them utopian visions, and then fail to deliver on those promises, followers take matters into their own hands. He expressed his concern that disappointed followers of Trump would "end up joining fascist or far-right groups" and take matters into their own hands against the eight million Muslims in the United States".[93]
In July 2020, Nawaz began ahunger strike to protest againstChina's imprisonment and persecution of theUyghurs in the country, and to urge the government, through theUK Parliament petitions website, to impose sanctions on China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims.[94][95] Nawaz said the abuses amounted togenocide and that it "leaves no room for neutrality".[96] Within a week, the petition passed the 100,000 signature threshold, thereby ensuring that a debate on the issue would take place in Parliament.[97]
In January 2021, Nawaz signed an open letter to the FBI and other Western intelligence agencies asking them to investigate the possibility thatCOVID-19 lockdowns were a "global fraud" promulgated by theChinese Communist Party and intended to "impoverish the nations" that implemented them.[98][99] He has shared his mistrust ofCOVID-19 vaccines.[4][100] Nawaz said that he believed "natural immunity" was safer, and in a deleted tweet from January 2022 linking to a news story about mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19 in Italy, Nawaz captioned the story as "a global palace coup that suspends our rights ... by a network of fascists who seek aNew World Order".[4][101]
At the age of 21, Nawaz married a then fellowHizb ut-Tahrir activist who was a biology student;[11] they have a son.[8][102] On Nawaz's decision to leave Hizb ut-Tahrir, they separated and later divorced.[103]
In 2014, Nawaz married Rachel Maggart, an artist and writer from the United States who works for an art gallery inLondon.[104][105] In 2017, Nawaz and Maggart had their first child.[106]
In February 2019, Nawaz said that he was assaulted in a racially motivated attack by a white man.[107]
The apology reads as follows: 'The Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong to include Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in our Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. Since we published the Field Guide, we have taken the time to do more research and have consulted with human rights advocates we respect. We've found that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism. Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists. We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best.'
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