I first came across Magid Nawaz when he became a regular presenter on the LBC radio station recently. This is a hard-hitting memoir of one man's journey into and out of Islamic extremism. It also highlights one man's quest to inspire change and challenge extremism in all its forms. Six years after his release, Maajid now works all over the world to counter Islamism and to promote democratic ideals through his organisation, The Quilliam Foundation, which he cofounded with former Islamist and best-selling author Ed Husain.įollowing in the wake of the extraordinary democratic change in the Arab world that few would have foretold, Radical is Maajid's intensely personal account of life inside and out of Islamic extremism. This move would cost him his marriage, his family and his friends as well as his own personal security. There, while mixing with everyone from the assassins of Egypt's president to Liberal reformists, he underwent an intellectual transformation, and on his release after four years, he publically renounced the Islamist ideology that had defined his life. He arrived in Egypt the day before 9/11, where his views soon led to his arrest, imprisonment and mental torture before he was thrown into solitary confinement in a Cairo jail reserved for political prisoners. While studying for his Arabic and law degree, he travelled around the UK and to Denmark and Pakistan, setting up new cells.

Abandoning his love of hip-hop music, graffiti and girls, he was recruited into Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Liberation Party), where he played a leading and international role in the shaping and dissemination of an aggressive anti-West narrative. Born and raised in Essex, Maajid Nawaz was recruited into politicised Islam as a teenager.

Radical by Maajid Nawaz