Nawaz Quilliam
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</font></div><div><div><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/maajid-nawaz-v-splc/562646/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/maajid-nawaz-v-splc/562646/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <span lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">e Southern Poverty Law Center, the venerable civil-rights organization, </span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">
</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">has <b>issued a formal apology to British political activist Maajid Nawaz and will make a $3.4 million payment over his inclusion </b>in a 2016 list of “anti-Muslim extremists.”</span></font></div><div class="blah" a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; display: grid;"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The settlement is the culmination of a bitter battle between the two sides that has stretched nearly two years. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As I wrote when SPLC’s original report, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists</em>, was published, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/10/maajid-nawaz-splc-anti-muslim-extremist/505685/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'0',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Nawaz’s inclusion was baffling and difficult to defend</a>. SPLC did not grant Nawaz’s demand for a retraction, but it did make some edits to his entry while defending his inclusion. Then, in April, the group removed the guide altogether.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, however, SPLC President Richard Cohen posted an apology to Nawaz and to the Quilliam Foundation, his think-tank.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Given our understanding of the views of Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam, it was our opinion at the time that the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Field Guide </em>was published that their inclusion was warranted,” Cohen <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2018/06/18/splc-statement-regarding-maajid-nawaz-and-quilliam-foundation" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'1',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">said in a statement</a>. “But after getting a deeper understanding of their views and after hearing from others for whom we have great respect, we realize that we were simply wrong to have included Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Field Guide</em> in the first place.”</font></p></div></section></div><aside class="l-rail l-rail--right l-rail--1" role="complementary" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex-basis: 300px; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: 300px; grid-area: 1 / 2 / span 1 / auto;"><div class="u-dynamic-content js-dynamic-content is-rendered lazyloaded" data-include="/api/2.0/articles/562646/related-articles/?page_size=4 module:theatlantic/js/components/recirc-content" data-insert="false" data-section="side" data-source="curated" data-title="More Stories" data-currentinclude="" style="box-sizing: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.5s ease 0s;"><section class="c-recirc-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; left: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; position: static; right: auto; width: auto;"><div class="c-recirc-contentitems" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow: auto hidden; white-space: nowrap; width: auto;"><ul class="c-recirc-contentlist" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; flex-direction: column;"><li class="c-recirc-item c-recirc-item--" id="recirc-item-3" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(211, 220, 230); display: flex; padding: 16px 0px; position: relative; white-space: normal; width: auto; flex-direction: row-reverse; justify-content: space-between;"><div class="c-recirc-itemcontent" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex-grow: 1;" /></li></ul></div></section></div></aside></div><div data-section="full" data-pos="boxinjector-d" data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-desktop.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-boxinjector-d-wrapper" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="blah" a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" margin-top="margin-top" em="em" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; display: grid;"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the merits, SPLC seems to have made the right choice. Nawaz’s inclusion made the report look more like an attempt to police the discourse on Islam than a true inventory of anti-Muslim extremists, of whom there is no shortage, and opened SPLC up to charges that it had strayed from its civil-rights mission at a time when it's more important than ever. But the terms of the settlement are troubling at a time when free speech and the free press are under fire, sometimes from the very same people who threaten civil rights.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SP<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">LC also <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/splc-statement-video" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'2',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">posted a video apology</a>. It said that the payout will go toward Quilliam’s work and will be paid for by insurance.</span> “It was the right thing to do in light of our mistake and the right thing to do in light of the growing prejudice against the Muslim community on both sides of the Atlantic,” Cohen said. The statement does not specify which elements of the field guide were incorrect. SPLC did not respond to a request for further comment.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-house-mobile.html" data-pos="housepromo-m" id="housepromo-m" class=" ad-housepromo-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">here was no lack of irony to SPLC labeling Nawaz an “anti-Muslim extremist,” because Nawaz has described himself as a former extremist—but an Islamist one. A British-born Muslim of Pakistani descent, he joined the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir as a teenager, and eventually ended up in an Egyptian prison. Nawaz came to see <a href="https://www.quilliaminternational.com/we-need-to-pull-up-islamism-by-its-roots/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'3',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Islamism</a>, the ideology that combines the religion of Islam with politics, as a dangerous problem, and one that is separable from the religion. Back in the United Kingdom, he opened Quilliam, named for an early British convert to Islam, to fight Islamist extremism.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nawaz is undoubtedly controversial. To what is broadly his left, critics find him to be far too strident in his criticism of Islamism and too apt to align himself with right-wing politicians. To the right, critics view him as too much of an apologist for Islam still. Nawaz has also said he receives death threats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet even some of Nawaz’s critics were perplexed by SPLC’s choice to include him. Unlike other figures on the list, including Frank Gaffney or Pam Geller (or some figures who aren’t, like Donald Trump), Nawaz does not argue that Islam itself is the problem. There’s also the small problem that he is a Muslim himself, which separates him from figures like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, another controversial figure, included in SPLC’s report, who was raised Muslim but now identifies as an atheist.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>SPLC cited four particular reasons for Nawaz’s inclusion on the list.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As I noted at the time, the first two—his tweeting of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad and visiting a strip club—were both tacky at worst. SPLC said Nawaz wanted to criminalize the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">niqab</em>, or face veil; Nawaz countered that he favored a “policy” against the veil, not a law against it. SPLC and Nawaz also quarreled over a list of Islamist groups compiled by Quilliam, which SPLC said enabled government targeting and which Quilliam said was intended to defend the listed groups.</span></font></p></div></div></div></section></div><aside class="l-rail l-rail--right l-rail--2" role="complementary" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-basis: 300px; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: 300px; grid-area: 1 / 2 / span 1 / auto; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center;"><div data-section="side" data-pos="native-rr" data-template="hippo/components/ads/rail.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-native-rr-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></aside></div><div data-section="full" data-pos="boxinjector-d" data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-desktop.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-boxinjector-d-wrapper" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="blah" a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" margin-top="margin-top" em="em" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; display: grid;"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this devolution into quibbling risks obscuring the larger point: It’s possible to disagree with much or some of what Nawaz says, and the way he says it (as I in fact do) without concluding he is an anti-Muslim extremist. In its statement, SPLC seemed to agree.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, we recognize that they have made important contributions to efforts to promote pluralism and that they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists,” Cohen said.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The list that included Nawaz became a central bone of contention in a broader debate over SPLC in general. While the fabled nonprofit has long had its critics, many of them hatemongers like Gaffney, the new chorus included sympathetic observers and fellow researchers on hate groups, who worried that SPLC was mixing its research and activist strains. “Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way?” <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/28/morris-dees-splc-trump-southern-poverty-law-center-215312" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'4',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Politico Magazine </em>asked</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">N<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">onetheless, the settlement, and especially its size, are somewhat surprising because SPLC might well have prevailed in court, albeit at great cost. Defamation lawsuits are famously difficult to win in the United States. A plaintiff who is a public figure must show not only that what is written about him is factually untrue, but also that it was published with “actual malice,” which is to say that whoever published knew or suspected it was untrue.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The words ‘anti-Muslim extremist’ certainly sounds and indeed must be a matter of opinion,” the noted First Amendment litigator Floyd Abrams told me. “The language that someone is an extremist may not in and of itself be a defamatory statement of fact. The argument would be it’s not defamatory—it’s not even a statement of fact!”</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if Nawaz could prove a factual statement, he would then have to prove actual malice. “If it was a mere overstatement or thoughtless or any of those characterizations, then the defendant would start out in pretty good position,” Abrams said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ken White, a First Amendment lawyer and blogger, <a href="https://www.popehat.com/2018/06/18/the-southern-poverty-law-center-surrenders-unconditionally-to-maajid-nawaz-we-should-be-concerned/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'5',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">wrote Monday that the result was troubling</a>. The firm representing Nawaz, Clare Locke, has <a href="http://clarelocke.com/defamation/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'6',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">sued a long list of media organizations</a>. </span><b>Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly called for changing libel laws to make it easier to sue the press</b>. While White criticized SPLC for having transformed itself from a bulwark against bigotry into a policeman for political correctness, he said the surrender could set a bad precedent:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; padding-left: 16px; box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The threatened lawsuit appears to be part of a trend of <a href="https://www.popehat.com/2017/06/29/how-the-southern-poverty-law-center-enraged-nominal-conservatives-into-betraying-free-speech-values/" rel="noopener" target="blank" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'7',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">suing the SPLC for its opinions and characterizations.</a> The settlement will embolden that trend. The trend will not stay confined to the SPLC — that's not the way the law works. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Especially</em> in such bitterly divided times, suing over opinions is deeply censorious and corrosive of free speech. Nawaz — who has himself been the <a href="https://www.popehat.com/2014/01/21/the-self-perpetuating-logic-of-censorship/" rel="noopener" target="blank" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'8',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">target of attempted censorship</a> — should know that.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If White’s prediction is correct, that makes the episode all the more disappointing. SPLC’s work is especially important in this moment, as President Trump <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/sessions/563006/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'9',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">rolls back civil-rights laws</a>, targets marginalized communities, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-charlottesville-white-supremacy/537045/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'10',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">offers encouragement to white supremacists</a>. </span>By overreaching in its description of Nawaz, SPLC undercut its own reputation and the noble goal of fighting against anti-Muslim sentiment, and by settling, it risks undercutting free-speech protections at a time when they are already under threat.</font></p></div></div></section></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oct 29</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="blah" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; display: grid; grid-template-areas: " a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">earlier this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center and three other groups released a list of 15 “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20161025/field-guide-anti-muslim-extremists#nawaz" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'0',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">anti-Muslim extremists</a>,” many of the names came as no surprise. They included <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/08/the-rise-of-shrieking-bigot-pamela-geller/61704/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'1',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Pam Geller</a>, who led the fight against the misleadingly nicknamed Ground Zero mosque, and her ally <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/03/what-about-your-gaffneys/474921/?page=1" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'2',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Frank Gaffney</a>, who has called Barack Obama a crypto-Muslim and assailed Grover Norquist as a Islamist agent. Others were more controversial, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is beloved by some as a truthteller and reviled by others as a bigot.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But one name in particular stuck out: Maajid Nawaz, a British activist who runs the <a href="http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'3',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Quilliam Foundation</a>, which calls itself “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank.” (It’s named for Abdullah (né William) Quilliam, a British convert who opened the U.K.’s first mosque in 1889.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nawaz is a star in certain anti-terror circles, thanks to a compelling personal narrative: A self-described former extremist who spent four years in an Egyptian prison, he has changed approaches and now argues for a pluralistic and peaceful vision of Islam. He stood for Parliament as a Liberal Democrat in 2015, and advised Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and David Cameron.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nawaz’s work has earned him <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/128436/maajid-nawaz-really-believe" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'4',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">detractors</a>—critics claim he has embellished or neatened his narrative, some attack him for opportunism, and others question his liberal bona fides—but calling him an “anti-Muslim extremist” is a surprise. Unlike the likes of Gaffney and Geller, he doesn’t espouse the view that Islam itself is a problem; unlike Ali, who now describes herself as an atheist, Nawaz identifies as a Muslim.</font></p></div></section></div><aside class="l-rail l-rail--right l-rail--1" role="complementary" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex-basis: 300px; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: 300px; grid-area: 1 / 2 / span 1 / auto;"><div class="u-dynamic-content js-dynamic-content is-rendered lazyloaded" data-include="/api/2.0/articles/505685/related-articles/?page_size=4 module:theatlantic/js/components/recirc-content" data-insert="false" data-section="side" data-source="curated" data-title="More Stories" data-currentinclude="" style="box-sizing: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.5s ease 0s;"><section class="c-recirc-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; left: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; position: static; right: auto; width: auto;"><div class="c-recirc-contentitems" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow: auto hidden; white-space: nowrap; width: auto;"><ul class="c-recirc-contentlist" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; flex-direction: column;"><li class="c-recirc-item c-recirc-item--" id="recirc-item-3" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(211, 220, 230); display: flex; padding: 16px 0px; position: relative; white-space: normal; width: auto; flex-direction: row-reverse; justify-content: space-between;"><div class="c-recirc-itemcontent" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex-grow: 1;" /></li></ul></div></section></div></aside></div><div data-section="full" data-pos="boxinjector-d" data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-desktop.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-boxinjector-d-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class="blah" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; display: grid; grid-template-areas: " a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" margin-top="margin-top" em="em" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I spoke to Nawaz on Thursday, he was both baffled and furious.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They put a target on my head. The kind of work that I do, if you tell the wrong kind of Muslims that I’m an extremist, then that means I’m an target,” he said. “They don’t have to deal with any of this. I don’t have any protection. I don’t have any state protection. These people are putting me on what I believe is a hit list.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not that he took well to his inclusion on its merits, either.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m the one who’s a Muslim in this!” he said. <span style="font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: inherit;">“</span>I’m listed there with people such as Pam Geller? It’s unbelievable.” He pointed out that he does things like <a href="http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/briefing-room/islam-religion-peace" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'5',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">appear in an Intelligence Squared debate</a> arguing for the proposition—against Ali, in fact—that Islam is a religion of peace. (“I lost the vote,” he said, with a tinge of bitterness.) He has also won <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/essex-boy-maajid-nawaz-brilliantly-shuts-down-lbc-caller-who-wants-him-deported_uk_57c1ccc9e4b035d5604f37a1" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'6',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">praise</a> for <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/maajid-nawaz/maajid-dismantles-caller-islamic-takeover-britain/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'7',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">battling</a> Islamophobes in the press.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-house-mobile.html" data-pos="housepromo-m" id="housepromo-m" class=" ad-housepromo-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The report cited several counts against Nawaz. One is that he tweeted a cartoon of Muhammad—an intentionally provocative act, given that many Sunnis find it blasphemous to depict the prophet, but one that doesn’t fit neatly into the “anti-Islam” category. (Most Shiites don’t object at all, but in any case, is simply committing a blasphemous act anti-Islam?) A second is that Nawaz <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034312/The-married-Lib-Dem-feminist-drunken-strip-club-night-temptation-caught-camera.html" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'8',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">visited a strip club in London</a> during a bachelor party, which is true, tasteless, and seemingly irrelevant to the matter at hand.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Third is <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2508476/Maajid-Nawaz-Why-I-Muslim-believe-veil-barred-schools.html" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'9',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">a <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Daily Mail </em>op-ed</a> about the niqab, or face veil. The report states that he “called for criminalizing the wearing of the veil, or niqab, in many public places.” Nawaz counters that he only called it inappropriate. But he did write that there should be a “policy” barring the niqab in certain spaces: “Let me make this clear: it is our duty to adopt a policy barring the wearing of niqabs in these public buildings. Here’s my test: where a balaclava, motorcycle helmet or face mask would be deemed inappropriate, so should a niqab.”</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The most interesting is the fourth point, because it highlights a peculiar dynamic: The SPLC and Nawaz are each accusing the other of McCarthyism. The report states:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; padding-left: 16px; box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the list sent to a top British security official in 2010, headlined “Preventing Terrorism: Where Next for Britain?” Quilliam <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/aug/04/quilliam-foundation-list-alleged-extremism" target="_blank" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'10',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">wrote</a>, “The ideology of non-violent Islamists is broadly the same as that of violent Islamists; they disagree only on tactics.” An official with Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit told <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Guardian</i> that “[t]he list demonises a whole range of groups that in my experience have made valuable contributions to counter-terrorism.”</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nawaz disputes the claim. <a href="https://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Setting-the-Record-Straight1.pdf" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'11',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Quilliam says</a> the list in question was an appendix to a larger report, and simply a list of British Muslim organizations; in fact, he says, the point was to say that such groups should be legal, even if they were extremist, so long as they were not violent. “It wasn’t a terror list,” Nawaz said. “We were saying, don’t ban these groups. We’ve gone through the looking glass. It’s the direct opposite of my life’s work.” He pointed to <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm071114/debtext/71114-0005.htm" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'12',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">an exchange on the floor of Parliament</a>, in which then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown cited him in defense of the notion that Islamist parties such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, with which Nawaz was affiliated in his radical days, ought not to be illegal:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; padding-left: 16px; box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even many of those who have left the groups and feel that they should be exposed are of the view that exposing them is not the same as banning them altogether. Maajid Nawaz, who talked about the matter on “Newsnight,” said: “My ideal scenario would be not to ban the party but it would be that through the … power of discussion and persuasion that eventually the party would fizzle out in this country.”</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Potok, a senior fellow at SPLC who wrote the report (and has a long resume of similar work on extremists), told me that Quilliam’s list of groups was the linchpin of the case for Nawaz as an anti-Muslim extremist. (Potok also noted that the list was compiled in collaboration with Media Matters for America, the Center for New Community, and ReThink Media.)</font></p></div></div></div></section></div><aside class="l-rail l-rail--right l-rail--2" role="complementary" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-basis: 300px; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: 300px; grid-area: 1 / 2 / span 1 / auto; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center;"><div data-section="side" data-pos="native-rr" data-template="hippo/components/ads/rail.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-native-rr-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></aside></div><div data-section="full" data-pos="boxinjector-d" data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-desktop.html" data-native="standard,gift" class=" ad-boxinjector-d-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class="blah" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; display: grid; grid-template-areas: " a="a" b="b" grid-template-columns="grid-template-columns" fr="fr" px="px" margin-top="margin-top" em="em" font-family="font-family" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size"><div class="l-articlecontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: none; width: 736px; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1; align-self: start; grid-area: 1 / 1 / auto / span 1;"><section class="l-articlesection s-cms-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="article-section-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 64px;"><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nawaz, meanwhile, accused SPLC of “McCarthyism” for compiling the guide. “Who compiles lists of individuals these days?” he said. “Even if someone was an anti-Muslim bigot, there shouldn’t be lists of names of individuals.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Potok rejected the argument out of hand. “If criticizing any number of people is McCarthyism, then I guess the only answer to never criticize anyone. One can disagree or agree with a particular listing that we’ve made. … In some sense, to make a statement like that is to say that we shouldn’t criticize.” He noted that SPLC was careful never to list addresses or contact information for those it labeled extremists. “Our point is not to make these people targets for violence, Potok said. “The point is to tamp down the really baseless targeting.” While Nawaz demanded a correction, retraction, and apology, Potok said none was coming.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One thing that seemed to particularly irk Nawaz was the fact that the report came from SPLC. While the group is controversial—and particularly loathed on the American right—Nawaz’s objection was that he has known and respected their work for years. “It lends the wingnuts a level of credibility,” he said.</font></p><div data-template="hippo/components/ads/article-mobile.html" data-native="standard,gift" data-pos="boxinjector-m" class=" ad-boxinjector-m-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet Potok surely has a point about lists, even if one rejects Nawaz’s inclusion on this particular one. If naming and shaming the likes of Geller and Gaffney is beyond the pale, how should one combat Islamophobia, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/islamophobia-is-not-a-myth/384502/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'13',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">which is a real and growing problem</a>? Nawaz endorsed the work of <a href="http://tellmamauk.org/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'14',r'None'" style="transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Tell MAMA UK</a>, an organization that tracks attacks on Muslims and other incidents of Islamophobia.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are legitimate disagreements about the most effective way of fighting Islamophobia. There are also grounds to argue about whether what Quilliam is doing is truly making much difference. But what makes Nawaz’s appearance on the list so peculiar is that he and SPLC share the goal of fighting back against unfair targeting of Muslims. If even natural-seeming allies are preoccupied fighting each other about tactics, what hope is there prevailing in the fight against real bigots?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div></section></div></div></div></div></div></div>