| Event details | Radical: My Journey from Islamist Extremism to a Democratic Awakening |
|---|---|
| Event holder(s) | Festival of Ideas |
| Title | Radical: My Journey from Islamist Extremism to a Democratic Awakening |
| Date | 05/11/2012 |
| Time | 7.30pm-9pm |
| Venue | Watershed, 1 Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX |
| Type of event | Interview, Discussion |
| Booking link | http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/?p=4482 |
| Abstract |
A British Pakistani who grew up in Essex, Maajid Nawaz was recruited into political Islam as a teenager. He joined Hizb al-Tahrir (the Liberation Party) where he played a central role in the shaping and dissemination of an aggressive anti-West narrative. Arriving in Egypt the day before 9/11 his views soon led to his arrest, imprisonment and mental torture, before being thrown into solitary confinement in a Cairo jail reserved for political prisoners. There, while mixing with everyone from the assassins of Egypt’s president to Liberal reformists, he was adopted by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of Conscience, underwent an intellectual transformation and on his release after four years, he publically renounced the Islamist ideology that had defined his life, though he remains a Muslim. Maajid will be interviewed by writer and journalist Shiv Malik. They will discuss his journey and the work he now does to undermine the beliefs he had once been prepared to die for. This event is part of the Festival of Ideas. |
| Biography |
Maajid Nawaz is co-founder and chairman of Quilliam, a globally active civic-intervention organisation that focuses on matters of Integration, Citizenship & Identity, Religious Freedom, Extremism and Immigration. He is also the Founder of Khudi, a Pakistan based social movement campaigning to entrench democratic culture among the nation's youth. He has recently published Radical: My Journey from Islamist Extremism to a Democratic Awakening.
Shiv Malik has written for the New Statesman, Observer, Private Eye and the Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph and appeared on Sky News, Front Row, Newsnight, the Jeremy Vine Show as well as Radio 4's PM and The Moral Maze. He is currently a journalist on the Guardian. |