Jan. 26, 2016
Before The U.S. and other nations can be successful againstIslamic State (ISIS) and other global jihadists, we must understandthe difference between Islam and Islamism. That's the argument fromour guest on this week's episode, Maajid Nawaz.
"It happens to be that today we are dealing with an insurgencythat's rising and growing within my own Muslim community," he says.It doesn't help to deny it."
A Sunni Muslim and a former Islamist fundamentalist, who isfounding chairman of the London-based counter-terrorism foundation,Quilliam, Maajid makes a powerful argument for freedom, toleranceand respect.
He says that President Obama and many other liberal-mindedpoliticians and journalists have been reluctant to call Islamistideology by its proper name. "Here's where people become paralyzedby political correctness," he argues. "We are unable to say'Islamist extremism' as distinct from Islam the religion."
"I call this the Voldemort affect," citing the villain in theHarry Potter books and movies. Maajid compares the refusal to speakout against Islamists to those in the novels who were so petrifiedby Lord Voldemort's evil that they simply called him "he who mustnot be named."
"We're not talking about Islam the faith we're talking aboutpoliticalization of the faith."
Maajid Nawaz is author of the book “Radical: My Journey Out ofIslamist Extremism.”
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