Co-Founder and Executive Director of Quilliam, the worlds first counter-extremism think tank.
Founder of Pakistan's Counter-Extremism Social Movement, Khudi

Visit: www.khudipakistan.com

Maajid Nawaz is the co-founder and Executive Director of Quilliam, the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalized world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, human rights, democracy and developing a Muslim identity at home in, and with, the West.

Egypt hunted him down, tortured and imprisoned him. 'Amnesty International' and 'Fair Trials Abroad' adopted him as a prisoner of conscience. Tony Blair was repeatedly questioned about him during Prime Minister's Question Time. The U.S. Senate requested his expert testimony. BBC's 'Hard Talk', 'Newsnight', 'al-Jazeera' and Larry King Live hosted him. CBS 60 Minutes headlined him. London’s 'The Times' put him on their front page. An International Islamist ideologue once blacklisted from the U.S., Pakistan and Egypt for spreading The Narrative, Nawaz has gone on to inspire counter-extremism initiatives across the world.

Maajid Nawaz was a UK leadership member of the global extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. This former international recruiter who successfully exported the group from London to other countries finally tells his story of discrimination, radicalization, exporting extremism from London, torture and incarceration in Egypt, and his reasons for not only leaving behind extremism upon his release but for co-founding Quilliam, the world’s first counter-extremism think tank, and setting up Pakistan’s first counter-extremism democratic social movement, Khudi.

Maajid engages in counter-Islamist thought-generating, social-activism. He encourages inclusive citizenship-based political participation of Muslims in the West, and aims to synergize a respect for human rights with the civic liberal imperative to defend those in danger of being stigmatized by extremists due to their beliefs and personal choices.
 
Maajid holds a BA (Hons) from SOAS in Arabic and Law and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics (LSE), with modules in ‘Religion and Politics’ and ‘Conflict, Violence and Terrorism.’ Maajid is a member of the Liberal Democrat party, and a proud father to his young son.


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