On Maajid Nawaz’s LBC radio call-in show, he is forever taking fellow Muslims to task. He berates them if they believe homosexuals or adulterers should be stoned. He berates them for believing in sharia. He likens Muslims who believe that stoning adulterers and gays is okay so long as the conditions are met to the BNP (a racist, white nationalist group in the United Kingdom; it is now defunct). He doesn’t believe in the sharia punishment for apostasy or blasphemy. These are all fundamental aspects of Islam. He’s a Muslim who is following a fairy-tale version of Islam, an Islam that doesn’t exist anywhere else but in his mind.
And yet while he denounces Islam, he also lies about its teachings and defends it. There’s a hadith in which saintly Muhammad had rubbish dropped on his door every morning by a neighbouring Jew. Then, good Samaritan that he is, Muhammad went to check on the Jew when he awakened one morning to find no rubbish had been dumped at his door. He wanted to make sure the Jew wasn’t dead or ill. This is the picture Maajid Nawaz painted of Muhammad on one of his radio shows. Meanwhile, Nawaz is neglecting to tell listeners that Muhammad was fond of having his critics killed and tortured, and very fond of killing Jews, even young Jewish boys with so much as one pubic hair.
So what is he? Muslim or non-Muslim or alleged reformist Muslim for pay? If Muhammad is the perfect exemplar and role model for all mankind, who is Maajid that he gets to criticize and denounce his prophet’s teachings and example? You can hear the absolute frustration and rage in fellow Muslims voices when they call in, clearly citing the quran and Muhammad chapter and verse, only to then be told by Maajid that a thing is outdated or is not democratic or is not liberal.
So there you have it from Maajid Nawaz’s own mouth – Islam, essentially, is barbaric and medieval. Or is Maajid saying that he is better or more knowledgeable than Muhammad? If Maajid is all for liberalism and democracy, why is he a Muslim? There’s other religions out there that are absolutely peaceful at heart and by nature. Why be a Muslim? Why follow a religion when you don’t agree with or follow the teachings of its founder? Why follow something that you are having to dispose a great deal of in order to keep following it? Wouldn’t any sane, rational being give it up at some point and realise he or she is onto a loser?
Maajid has publicly stated on his radio show that a lot of the notions and attitudes in the quran, particularly towards women, are outdated and need to be ignored, if not removed altogether. He disagrees with chastising and beating one’s wife, is against slavery (although it continues in Muslim-majority countries today), and he also disavows the hijab, asking why men aren’t made to wear hijabs or be modest. Nothing about him on his radio show would suggest he is a Muslim. He even tells a woman that it’s psychological abuse to teach her daughter that if she isn’t modest and that if she doesn’t wear a hijab that she’ll end up in the hell-fire.
Maajid comes across, to my mind, as an atheist more than a religious person. I’d like him to condense the quran and publish his own little pint-sized version of whatever it is of Muhammad’s teachings are left that he agrees with.
Peter Buckley says
Well, he certainly takes a panning here from Murray and Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh34Xsq7D_A
Well worth watching. Nawaz is forced to take his medicine from those two. You almost feel sorry for the American Muslima who clearly has learned her Islam from her parents rather than from Muhammad. Hopefully she too learned something.
I like this clip, in which a doubting/ moderate musim in the audience informs Nawaz why his muslim friends “hate” him. Worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx0fyYVebbE
underbed cat says
Are you sure Nawaz you did not get punched for breaking Islamic law….not that I think you should have been punched but he was following his religious obligation that you must know can never be changed…I guess it may be the catch 22 situation do you truly think Islam can be reformed or are you speaking as a muslim and protecting doctrine that if exposed would not be welcomed.For the non muslim who does not know islamic laws of slander, these comments could play well and do play well for getting non muslims to let down their guard and clear road blocks.
Taylor says
He’s trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, as all muslim reformers are.
Bill Quest says
He’s trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, as all Muslim reformers are…..
Oh my …..pig products ….. That’s haram { filthy } and tantamount to heresy ….
J D S says
Sounds like he is a fence straddler like the peeadoo bird..This bird likes to sit on a wood fence and pee on one side and doo on the other.
Taylor says
But his long term plan is to pee and doo all over Britain.
Pat Mott says
I often listen to him & I am also confused! however, his view of Islam is what is generally accepted here in the OK, by the Government & peddled by the whole media quite aggressively!
mortimer says
Pat they are peddling ISLAM À-LA-CARTE. That is called ‘BIDA’ (innovation) or KUFR (wrong worshipping). Nawaz has no authorization subjectively to remove doctrines that he finds not to his taste.
Nawaz’s PERSONAL TASTE doesn’t decide what is CLASSIC ISLAM OF THE ORTHODOX ISLAMIC CONSENSUS.
Only the ‘CONSENSUS’ decides what is in Islam. Nawaz is only one voice and he is not an Islamic jurist. He does not have the accreditation to write a fatwa or to interpret the consensus for today.
He is expressing PRIVATE OPINIONS and not speaking for Islam officially. He speaks only for himself and the orthodox leaders would consider his opinions heresy. He would be imprisoned for such views in Saudi Arabia or beaten up by mobs in Pakistan.
Pat Mott says
As you know Mortimer, Maajid has a regular phone-in show on LBC radio. I would be so glad if someone like yourself or another scholar of Islam would question him on his views! Usually, he gets some hardline Muslims or the ‘airy fairy’ love you all ones phoning in along with liberal other people who agree with him! Is this because anyone who is likely to reveal the truth is not allowed to speak on the programme? Occasionally on other presenters shows people do express negative views about Islam & they are given ‘short shift’ belittled & ‘shot down’ fast! What do you think?
Maria says
Nawaz controls the show completely, manipulative abusive, control freak that he is. He’d NEVER let an intelligent, well spoken person, knowledgeble on Islam, speak more than a sentence. He’s dead set on not being exposed for the two-faced fraud he is.
Steve D says
Yes, yes, he wants to reform Islam by lying about what is reliably written, and believed. As I’ve always stated, the most dangerous Muslims are the so called moderates, because they are the carriers of the virulent strain of Islam
mortimer says
Islam à-la-carte or CAFETERIA Islam or pick-and-choose Islam. This procedure has a name.
Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allaah’s Laws. This could take the form of:
(a) Rejection of Allaah’s law (Sharee’ah) without denying it
(b) Denial of Allaah’s law and therefore rejecting it, or
(c) Substituting Allaah’s laws with man-made laws. Allaah subhanahu wa ta’ala says: Or have they partners with Allaah who have instituted for them a religion which Allaah has not allowed. [Soorah Shuraa(42), Ayah 8] Allaah subhanahu wa ta’ala says: Say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely (that) is lawful and this is forbidden so as to invent a lie against Allaah. Verily, those who invent a lie against Allaah will never prosper. [Soorah Nahl (16), Ayah 116]
Magic Nawaz is not permitted by Islamic TEACHING to INVENT or CONCOCT his OWN VERSION of watered-down Islam.
mortimer says
Joshua Winston wrties: “Why be a Muslim? Why follow a religion when you don’t agree with or follow the teachings of its founder?”
This is the very question Magic Nawaz ‘magically’ gets around. His feet should be held to the fire of his own making until he agrees that 60% of more of Islamic teachings CANNOT BE PRACTICED in the modern world.
If over 60% of Islam is incompatible with modernity, it is an admission that ISLAM IS BACKWARD and MEDIEVAL NONSENSE.
Why PRACTICE THIS MEDIEVAL DEATH CULT AT ALL? What’s so wonderful about the other 60% of Islam that so far isn’t illegal? Does placing your bottom in the opposite direction to Mecca during defecation make you a better person? Or is that not nonsense as well?
Angemon says
I can’t say I remember ever reading a quran (well, a “translation and explanation of the meaning of the glorious quran” since, technically, the quran is in arabic and in arabic alone) who lacked the introductory explanation stating that the rules in it are eternal and to be upheld until the end of days. Then again, Maajid identifies as a muslim, so who am I supposed to believe, him or my lying eyes and the other muslims who translated the quran into pretty much all languages under the sun?
mortimer says
Yes. Agree. Nawaz should PUT UP by REWRITING his own version of the Koran FOR TODAY by removing all the parts in it that are not TO HIS TASTE.
I wonder if a jurist has written a fatwa against him for BIDA (innovation).
Mirren10 says
” If Maajid is all for liberalism and democracy, why is he a Muslim? There’s other religions out there that are absolutely peaceful at heart and by nature. Why be a Muslim? Why follow a religion when you don’t agree with or follow the teachings of its founder? Why follow something that you are having to dispose a great deal of in order to keep following it? Wouldn’t any sane, rational being give it up at some point and realise he or she is onto a loser?”
Exactly.
Which leads me to believe that Nawaz is in it to whitewash islam, and is practicing taqyya.
If he ever publicly apostasises, then I will have some time for him. Otherwise, *no*.
As for the death threats he’s received, well, he’s still alive and kicking, isn’t he ? Maybe his fellow muslims realise he’s bullshitting for the kufr as well.
Bev says
He lives in la-la land…
FYI says
muhammed “the perfect examplar and role model for all mankind”
Talk about a fairy tale!…muhammed the “prophet”.let’s look at Perfect mo’s example…
muhammed the mass murderer of Jews{Abu Dawud 4390}
muhammed the polygamist Bukhari 1:5 :268
muhammed the BLACK slave owner and seller..Sahih muslim 3901
muhammed the {..ahem..}CROSS DRESSER Sahih Bukhari 2442
muhammed the promoter of camel urine as a health tonic Sahih Bukhari 8:82:794
So I guess the Perfect Man in islam is he who follows muhammed’s example or sunnah,right?
So he’ll need to be a …mass-murdering,polygamous,Black slave-owning,cross dressing,camel pee drinker.
Ideally illiterate.Do you know who drinks animal urine,BTW?The clinically INSANE.
LOOK!
Don’t blame me for pointing this out..these are OFFICIAL islamic teachings……check them yourself……..thank goodness for the internet..allah’s gift to us infidels….
DHazard says
Maajid is all the proof you need that “moderate” Islam is impossible.
gravenimage says
Maajid Nawaz’s fairy-tale version of Islam
………………….
I think it’s more that Nawaz wants *us* to believe in this fairy-tale Islam.
RichardL says
Maajid Nawaz doesn’t follow any precept of islam, as far as I know. He wants to reform islam and thinks that can only be done from within. Do I believe he will be successful? Not in reforming islam but in helping a few Muslims to become normal human beings. And I agree with gravenimage that his good work has a negative side effect: the public gets the wrong image of ‘real’ islam. The side effect may cause more harm than the intended effect.
gravenimage says
Richard, Nawaz is actually a pretty equivocal figure:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/tag/maajid-nawaz
I think someone like Zuhdi Jasser is more inclined to be sincere (although still ultimately useless).
Jayell says
“Nothing about him on his radio show would suggest he is a Muslim.”
LBC is a mainstream independent news station that has always maintained an appeal to a mainstream UK audience for its success. The last time I looked at their website it was obvious that their presenters were all suitably ‘mainstream’ individuals with just one exception – Nawaz. If Nawaz were to start propogating an islamic agenda, LBC’s listening fugures would start to drop at least for the duration of his show, and the advertisers wouldn’t like that. And once listeners start switching over there’s a chance they might not switch back especially as they include a lot of disgruntled refugees from the disgusting BBC (and there’s even one presenter who’s a disgusted refugee from the BBC), and any hint of noticeable PC/islamic contamination in LBC content might threaten to consign it to the dustbin. LBC can’t afford to be in the proverbial dustbin even if the BBC, with its licence income, can. So Nawaz’s role is essentially to be a bit of ‘token’ minority presence, a bit of window-dressing and possibly a link with the ethnic element in London who are now over 50% of the Capital’s overall demographic and the reason why London’s identity and reputation is now not what it was. Nawaz may well be an ‘atheist’ – I don’t know and I don’t care – but his apparent ‘atheism’ might be the same as Mayor Khan’s proclaimed ‘agnosticism’ (which strangely seem to evaporate once he got himself into office and revealed a distinctly islamic residue), and it’s logical to presume the Nawaz may be finding it convenient and desirable to play ‘Uncle Tom’ (to quote Mayor Khan’s phraseology) in order to keep himself in a mainstream-media job. The relatively rare asian/muslim listeners and phone-in contributors to LBC programmes would probably not share Nawaz’s ersatz conciliatory or pseudo mainstream-conformist attitudes, so it is perfectly predictable that any muslim callers would exhibit symptoms of negativity to which Nawaz would have to respond in kind with outright rebuttal or some kind of fanciful nouveau-sanitised-mohammedan construct that might be deemed acceptable to a muslim mind or the LBC managers – that is, if he wants to keep his job.
By the way, it’s interesting scanning around the medium-wave dial in the London area, because one finds that one hits on all sorts of stations that don’t have a particularly ‘home-grown’ sound to them, and maybe aren’t even broadcasting in English. It would probably explain the BBC’s preoccupatiion with ‘diversity’ in a vain attempt to avoid a ‘ghetto broadcasting’ in an already-established ghetto-situation in London and elswhere, and may also explain Nawaz’s presence on LBC whose healthily-sized audience is reputed to consist of those who avoid the BBC like the plague, for some unknown reason.
Maria Sederholm says
I’m convinced Nawaz is a stealth jihadist. He is pursuing jihad not by violent means but by intellectual. He is a very skilled manipulator, and has got Ayan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, Dave Rubin, Douglas Murray… duped. Duping people comes natural for psychopathic narcissists.
Anjuli Pandavar says
+1
Henry says
Nawaz’s continual deflection from Islam’s answerability for Muslim rape gangs, and jihad terrorism indicates a snake in the grass. The British public needs to hear the truth about Islam, and be rid of this stealth jihadi plant.
Giana Wayman says
I had a client here who +/- said “I am a Muslim Atheist! Not a Christian Atheist as for me Christianity is irrelevant. I am a Muslim who hates, does not believe in and repudiates God –an evil idea that only exist in the minds of evil men.” And more similar things. Sort of a very strong version of Nawaz. I guess if you are raised in Islam it is within this culture that you can revolt and oppose it’s beliefs.
Jayell says
Or it might be expedient to ‘revolt’ in order to further one’s career in an alien (non-islamic) culture until such time as one is suitably placed professionally or socially in order to assert oneself and one’s islamic identity; or/and until islam has swamped the local social landscape. I believe thaty this would be a very commonly-practised version of taqqyia amongst muslims in the West.
Giana Wayman says
In some/many cases that may be true but not with this man. His hatred of Islam and what such belief does to people was all too real. It was Allah and Mohamed that he did not believe in and repudiated.
While there are only about 500 declared Muslims in Costa Rica the local Iman, while dressing in western clothes and no beard is a very frightening person.
Paul Middleton says
Maajid Nawaz is a stealth jihadist. Video: http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/12/maajid-nawaz-stealth-jihadist-exposed/
gravenimage says
Thanks for that link, Paul.
mach37 says
At last, someone – Joshua Winston – has put my thinking to words:
About “reformed” Muslims who claim to be Muslim: “why is he a Muslim?” Take away all the verses that are war-mongering and violent, and what do you have? I have yet to read any verse that preaches peace and love without it being “abrogated” either in the same verse, or in the verses that immediately preceded it or followed it.
“There are other religions out there that are absolutely peaceful at heart and by nature. Why be a Muslim? Why follow a religion when you don’t agree with or follow the teachings of its founder? Why follow something that you are having to dispose a great deal of in order to keep following it? Wouldn’t any sane, rational being give it up at some point and realise he or she is onto a loser?”
Bowen G says
Viewing the Islam Channel critically
Maajid Nawaz
We have a duty to hold to account broadcasters such as the Islam Channel that spread reactionary, intolerant messages
For the last seven years, since its launch in 2004, the London-based Islam Channel has been hugely influential in the British Muslim community, where it has played a pivotal role in the development of a British Islam. Every night, thousands of British Muslims, many of them young, tune into the channel to watch programmes dealing with news, current affairs and religion from a distinctly Islamic angle. In addition, every few years, the channel organises a conference called Global Peace and Unity, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors, both Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as a smattering of senior politicians.
Until now, however, the type of Islam that the channel promotes has never been scrutinised and its CEO, Mohamed Ali Harrath, has never been subjected to sustained critical questioning about the channel and its output. All this changed yesterday, when Harrath appeared on BBC Hardtalk where he was grilled by a BBC reporter on the findings of Quilliam’s latest report, released on Friday, which has examined the channel’s output over a three-month period.
Rather than deal with the substance of the allegations made against his channel, Harrath instead repeated the same tired attacks on Quilliam. So, for the sake of efficiency, let me remind the reader what Quilliam is not. As Cif belief editor Andrew Brown correctly observed, Quilliam should not be mistaken for a grassroots representative organisation, nor should it be held to that standard. Quilliam is a political thinktank and as such does not claim to speak on behalf of anyone. Harrath also mentioned the red herring of our receiving a government grant, thereby insinuating somehow that our report should not be considered seriously. As the Times has reported, it seems that it is fine for Harrath to receive public money when advising the police. For Harrath to use these arguments as a way to side-step the issues at hand is clearly disingenuous.
Now let’s deal with the substance. The report, based on recording and monitoring of the channel’s output over a three-month period, found several key trends. The channel was found to promote a very regressive attitude to women. Women were told by preachers who hosted shows that they could not travel anywhere without a male guardian. On one show called Muslimah Dilemma, hosted by a member of the extreme Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, women were also counselled that they had no right to refuse the sexual advances of their husbands. The channel also promoted a level of intolerance towards other sects and religions. Religious preachers featured on Islam Channel programmes such as IslamiQA repeatedly made derogatory remarks to the followers of other forms of Islamic religious expression..
Pat Mott says
You are probably correct about all this & it is all regrettable for us but the fact is they are on a winning streak! Islam is making steady progress in Western countries even though many of us object to it!