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By The Anglo American | September 6, 2008
A new organization, the Quilliam Foundation, was launched in Britain to counter radical Islamism in Britain. It will have a powerful voice as many of its founders are ex-members of radical Islamist groups, which have provided a conduit for terrorism in Britain.
Maajid Nawaz, the Director of Quilliam Foundation, was recruited by the Islamic radical group, Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Liberation Party) when he was only 16.
Nawaz was born in Essex, the county east of London. He was an International recruiter for the group and exported the party’s ideology to Pakistan where he set up cells.
His rejection of Hizb ut-Tahrir came as a result of his five-year imprisonment in Egypt where membership of this organization is illegal. This appears to have been a revelatory experience for him, not least because of the people he met in his Cairo prison. He became friends with Sa’d al-Din Ibrahim, the human rights advocate and campaigner, along with many jihadists who had come to reject Islamism.
For what started in Cairo for Maajid Nawaz was an unravelling of the indoctrination that started when he was 16 with Hizb ut-Tahrir. In a recent BBC interview he said “I came to the conclusion that what actually had been sold to me as my religion was in fact modern ideology. And it was really my time in prison that lead me to arrive at those thoughts”
The Quilliam Foundation is committed to the Andalusian heritage of Pluraism and respect. To quote from their website:
“Western Muslims should be free from the cultural baggage of the Indian subcontinent, or the political burdens of the Arab world. We were born and raised in a milieu that is different from the Muslim East. As such, our future and progeny belong here. Just as Muslims across the globe have adopted from and adapted to local cultures and traditions, while remaining true to the essence of their faith, Western Muslims should pioneer new thinking for our new times.”
It was precisely because of this pluralistic tradition of Islam that British scholars went to Spain to study Islamic texts that lead to the discovery, for Europeans, of Aristotle.
The Quilliam foundation is named after a 19th century English solicitor from Liverpool, who converted to Islam.
©The Anglo American
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Comments
May 29th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
How can you “reclaim” something if you were/are funded by a foreign govt (Kuwait)?
June 29th, 2008 at 10:17 am
With murky funding, allegations of immorality, and expulsion for fraud and dishonesty by the groups they worked with, one would have expected caution when believing anything these guys have to say - take note from Hasan Butt’s recent revelations under police pressure that all his stories of Jihadism were fabrications! These guys are on a similar trip - there’s a number of detailed academic critiques of these guys:
http://www.islamic-considerations.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilliam_Foundation
http://www.abu-ibrahim.blogspot.com
July 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
To fully understand and balance Jak’s leveraged position {below} I would recommend reading Ed Hussain’s, “The Islamist” {Penguin Books}. Written before he became a founding member of the Quilliam Foundation, it makes clear why this organization is so significant in British life. Ed