Maajid Nawaz

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Radical: My Journey Out Of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz is a memoir of the famous activist and former Jihadist. Mr. Nawaz is the founding Chairman of Quilliam, a think tank focusing on integration, and religious freedom.

A few weeks ago I read Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby, and in it she mentions this book and its author, whom she has befriended. I checked out the book and it sounded fascinating, right up my alley, and very relevant even though it was written in 2012.

Radical: My Journey Out Of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz starts in England, where Mr. Nawaz was forced to protect himself against far-right racists. He and his friends started carrying knives daily as the threat of violence escalated. As he fell into the Muslim victimhood echo chamber, he joined a militant Hizb it-Tahir (HT), an organization dedicated to establishing a Muslim Caliphate.

Mr. Nawaz became one of HT’s most prominent recruiters and was soon assigned to duties in Denmark, Pakistan, and Egypt. He spent time in Egypt as a political prisoner where he discovered that Jihadism doesn’t represent Islam and dedicated the rest of his life to erasing extremism and helping Muslims integrate around the world.

This book is well written, telling a compelling story. I found much of it fascinating, especially where the young Maajid Nawaz was radicalized, and his time spent in Egyptian jail. Mr. Nawaz does not shy away from difficult subjects to talk about, admits mistakes, and makes it clear that this is a cautionary tale.

The part I found most amusing is that upon escaping from the Egyptian internal security services, the only country in which this extreme jihadist felt safe was Israel. The author doesn’t dwell much on it, except his spiritual journey to Jerusalem, but in these troubled times, I wish to highlight that passage.

In this day and age, any person who changes their mind based on facts they learned needs to be applauded. Mr. Nawaz’ rejection of Jihadist ideology, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories are no exception.… (altro)

This book is more of a informal dialogue around the tough questions around Islam and radicalism .

Couple points which stood out for me was Maajid's view of the "minority within the minority" ; people tend to be politically correct addressing the issues within Islam ; however the real victims are the feminist voice , the gay voice within Islam which are crushed by an authoritarian ideology ; Also Sam's concerns about people gravitating towards the far right in order to counteract islamic fundamentalism is also a serious threat to modern liberal values of humanity , current political landscape is a testimony to this phenomena .

Overall this was a brilliant collaboration between Sam , who I have found to be one of the most logical voices in US and Maajid who comes across as immensely knowledgeable about the nature and factions of Islam and a very articulated individual .

… (altro)