Maajid Nawaz quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Maajid Nawaz

Maajid Nawaz Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Maajid Nawaz on Wise Famous Quotes.

Before someone can change his ideas, he has to open his heart.

But we're also taught that you're not a martyr if you blow yourself up in a marketplace, because you're killing civilians and other Muslims.

America did not invade Iraq because Iraqis are Muslims. Oil, money, economic interests. Who knows? But it was not because Iraqis are Muslims.

What we cannot deny is that there's an association between exclusion, segregation, non-violent extremist thinking, and jihadism.

I really didn't grow up religious, and I didn't grow up acknowledging my Muslim identity. For me, I was a British Pakistani.

The truth is that just as the 'West' is not a homogenous entity with one view on foreign and domestic policy, nor are Muslims.

Language that is designed to dehumanize has consequences.

Preying on the grievances of disaffected young men is the bedrock of Islamism.

Satire has been a sanctuary historically monopolized by progressives, originally used as a discreet tool against Western religious fundamentalism.

The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.

My upbringing was completely liberal from the start. In fact, I didn't even have a Muslim identity.

Ironically, xenophobic nationalists are utilizing the benefits of globalization.

Once you subscribe to an ideological dogma as a solution to certain grievances, it then frames your mindset.

We have to render Islamist extremism as unattractive as communism has become today.

For my own part, once I became a teenager, I experienced severe and violent racism.

No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity.

I was imprisoned in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks, when Egypt's state security was rounding people up in unprecedented numbers.

Does freedom of speech give the right to offend?

My arrest in Egypt happened in 2002, and I was convicted to five years as a political prisoner.

Let me make this clear: it is our duty to adopt a policy barring the wearing of niqabs in these public buildings.

All my friends were non-Muslims. I actually knew very little about Islam - like, very little.

Rather than allowing jihadists to shut down debate, it must proliferate so much that they simply cannot kill us all.

The only way that we can win over potential jihadists to liberal democracy is by winning the battle of ideas.

No idea is above scrutiny. No idea whatsoever. To criticize, to scrutinize and to satirize my own religion [Islam] is not Islamophobia.

We can't remain silent on gender rights and personal freedoms.

More violence does not necessarily equate with greater religious conviction.

Quilliam will remain a priority for me because its values shape my beliefs and outlook.

I think I would encourage leaders to start working with communities in order to inoculate angry, young teenagers.

Islamism is an ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society.

Traditionally, open-minded secular liberal rationalists have not made a case for tolerance.

Expressing myself through language was always something that I had had to learn to do more so than others.

The University of Westminster is well known for being a hotbed of extremist activity.

Dogma not only blinds its protagonist, but it muzzles all other opposition.

But because of the religious element in our message, and the desire of the authorities not to offend our religious

Islam will be what Muslims make of it. And it is the sum total of the interpretation that Muslims give to it.

I was held in the Mazra Tora Prison for my role as leader of the pan-Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir in Alexandria.

I am everything I am today, because of my past.

Any item of clothing that covers the face and makes it impossible to identify individuals is open to abuse.

In an open society, no idea can be above scrutiny, just as no people should be beneath dignity.

Like so many nice people who seek power, I wanted to force everyone else to be nice. It's called totalitarianism.

The way to tackle Muslimphobia is to tackle prejudice against Muslims. What it is not is to pretend that Islamist extremism does not exist.

To be forced to defend oneself is an inherently undesirable position to be in. The focus shifts from ideas to the person conveying them.

My feminism, as intended by me, extends to empowering women to make legal choices, not to judge the legal choices they make. My fight is for rights.

I care not to debate which came first, Islamism or anti-Muslim bigotry; suffice to say that both feed into each other symbiotically.

Unity in faith is theocracy; unity in politics is fascism.

In the United Kingdom, we need to promote an inclusive British identity that involves and empowers people from all ethnic and faith backgrounds.

I can now say that the more I learnt about Islam, the more tolerant I became.

I'm yet to discover any form of theocracy that isn't homophobic, that isn't bigoted to the out group.

I used to MC a bit when I was young - 14 or 15 years old.

Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society.

The Bosnian Genocide was something that triggered my consciousness and led to an awakening politically for me.

The British and French governments have taken a strong stance against 'extremist content' online when addressing their approach to tackling extremism.

The truth is, 'Charlie Hebdo' is not a racist magazine. Rather, it is a campaigning anti-racist left-wing magazine.

Chance explorations on search engines do not 'accidentally' lead users to extremist websites.

I worked my way through the education system and was treated as though I had value.

After the Islamic State, even al-Qaeda appears 'moderate'.

We cannot hope to effectively counter extremism if we just focus on schools, universities and prisons: we need to take this online as well.

The cheeky ideal I am calling for is that Muslims should be viewed as equal citizens, nothing more and nothing less.

Islamism. It's an ideology. People are seeking to bring it about, but they differ in their approach.

The best revolutions are unplanned, and the most democratic are leaderless.

I was born and raised in Essex, just outside London, to a financially comfortable, well-educated Pakistani family.

I was, by the way - I'm an Essex lad, born and raised in Essex in the U.K.

Non-violent extremism is essentially the increase of intolerant and bigoted demands made by groups seeking to dominate society.

In prison I had the opportunity to debate and discuss people that had subscribed to all forms of Islamism.

During my teenage years as an Islamist recruiter, I moved to live in self-contained communities in the London boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Societies should be judged by how they treat the weakest among them.

Muslim communities themselves, as they expect mainstream society to stand down racists, must do more to also stand down the Islamist extremists.

To suggest that a Muslim cannot think for himself sounds to me very much like an incident of anti-Muslim bigotry.

When I returned to the United Kingdom, I found that I could no longer justify Islamist extremism as the antidote.

Having our fundamental assumptions about life challenged is never a comfortable thing.

If we look at Abdel Nasser in Egypt as an Arab leader, he was secular.

Academic institutions in Britain have been infiltrated for years by dangerous theocratic fantasists. I should know: I was one of them.

I have founded Khudi, in Pakistan, a youth movement which tries to counter extremist ideology through healthy discussion and debate.

I say I haven't lost my religion. I've lost my ideology.

After much soul searching I was able to renounce my past Islamist ideology, challenging everything I was once prepared to die for.

I come from an immigrant family, but I know no other nationality apart from British.

Liberalism will beat totalitarianism by killing it softly, not by mimicking it.

It's not always the case that Muslims have been theocrats.

The Islamist ideology took decades to incubate within our communities, and it will take decades to debunk.

The fact is that there is a serious problem of extremism with minority groups within Muslim communities.

Hizb ut-Tahrir spearheaded the radicalization of the 1990s and cultivated an atmosphere of anger.