Maajid Cries Smear after Daily Mail Exposé

A recent exposé on the parliamentary candidate has sparked outrage across the Muslim community. Nawaz, standing for the Liberal Democrats branded the Daily Mail article as a smear campaign deliberately orchestrated prior to the general election.

Maajid Nawaz has never been shy of controversy and always seems to be embroiled in a new one every so often. The latest debacle surrounds his early stag do that took place last July in Aldgate. The details of which were only revealed on the 11th April, a very timely moment, given Nawaz is standing for parliament representing Hampstead and Kilburn.

Since the 11th April, Maajid has received the usual barrage of abuse on social media and according to some reports received death threats from IS. He has since installed a panic alarm in his home and posted a Facebook message for all to see. Things have escalated quickly and the threats to his life are abhorrent, needless to say.

#SleazeMaajid v #DailyFail

Whilst browsing through his social media account looking for responses to his tweets, I found the internet divided into two camps.

The Loyalists

The Un-apologists

As you can see Twitter was either incensed over Maajid’s rebuttal after the Daily Mail exposé or were firmly backing his apparent liberal façade in the face of criticism from conservative critics.

In response to the Daily Mail article, many celebrities backed Maajid’s claims including Adil Ray who tweeted in support of Nawaz.

Subsequently, Maajid has retweeted the hashtag solidarity for those who were speaking in his defence. If you glance over his Twitter timeline, it is awash with a plethora of tweets striking allegiance with the prospective MP.

The Nawaz Spring #Solidarity

Yesterday (14.04/2015), Maajid posted an extended response which documented the events prior / during / after the incident which occurred at the strip club aptly named Charlie’s Angels. It seems the angels turned out to be devils in disguise.

The full unadulterated response, courtesy of Maajid Nawaz:

A planned and sustained attack campaign against reform-minded Muslims. My reply to recent allegations.

“It doesn’t matter if you are in the right. It doesn’t matter if lots of ‘ordinary people’ do the same. In times such as these, the public wants a hero. They do not want an ‘ordinary’ person”. These words were uttered to me by my ever wise wife Rachel, after footage of my stag night in London was vindictively leaked to the press.

In writing this statement I had to think long and hard about whether to come out guns blazing in robust defence of my perfectly legal private actions, of which Rachel had full knowledge, or whether to focus on what I could learn from this episode. Should I wax lyrical about the evident set-up sprung upon me by a bitter club owner who felt perfectly comfortable being a Muslim himself, and owing a strip club, yet felt religiously affronted that I — another Muslim — should be taken to his establishment by my best man to celebrate during my last few months of bachelorhood? Should I focus on that Daily Mail headline: “Married”? It was a stag night. I was obviously not yet married. But no, Rachel’s wise words and grace in the face of such a public violation of our privacy continued to play on my conscience: “people will be people, Maajid. You must be better”.

Indeed. So here I will deign to present a brief explanation of some salient points, and then seek to offer some contrition, because Rachel has been dragged into this mess through no fault of her own, yet has handled it with more grace than I would have were I her.

I have already mentioned that this was a stag night before my marriage. However, even if it were after my marriage, Rachel had already known about it. As a liberal, what consenting adults do in private — whether in or out of wedlock — is not for me to judge. In current times, our moral uproar is best reserved for those who aspire to stone men or women to death, not those who consensually watch women, or men for that matter, dance. In fact, please be prepared to see me again around London sometime, you may even catch me dancing. As long as Rachel is happy, I will not suddenly stop going out. And if you see me, do come over and say hello.

A main question that arises here is the question of hypocrisy. Of my being a Muslim, and a self-described feminist. On being a Muslim, I have lost count of the number of times I have stated that I am a “non-devout” Muslim, including in the Mail newspaper itself (www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2508476/Maajid-Nawaz-Why-I-Muslim-believe-veil-barred-schools.html). I certainly do not claim to be a religious role model. My work through Quilliam in challenging extremism and promoting human rights is political and social work. I do not proscribe “good” religion. I never describe myself as a representative of Muslims in media, and speak as a liberal, who happens to be a non-devout Muslim, with a unique experience and insight into Islamist extremism. Therefore, my fellow Muslims, I am genuinely sorry that my being in a strip club during a stag night offended you, but I never claimed to represent our religion.

Objections to my describing myself as a feminist might seem at first sight to have more merit. Some feminists take the view that visiting such gentlemen’s clubs objectifies women. Others, many women too, take a more sex-positive view, and believe that erotic dancing is empowering to women. My feminism, as intended by me, extends to empowering women to make legal choices, not to judge the legal choices they make. My fight is for rights. The right of men or women who choose to cover their heads, or their right to uncover their bodies. As long as both are by choice, I will defend people’s right to do either. Others may have their own view, but that is the extent of my feminism. And again, therefore, there is no hypocrisy in me visiting a strip club for a stag night.

This leads to another allegation made in the article by the staff: and it is important that our language remains precise when repeating these: ‘pestering’, and ‘repeated attempts’ to touch the dancer. It has not been suggested that the dancer herself has levied these allegations. In fact, it was the club’s staff, who have already made their political views known in the piece. I wonder, does the club have a “no Muslims we disagree with” policy, only approving conservative Muslim customers?

Let us remember that this was an incident that took place 10 months ago at “Charlie’s Angels” in Aldgate (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Charlie'[email protected],-0.071354,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4876034a97f8d873:0x5d65eb3afeccab45), and the CCTV footage was unscrupulously leaked just weeks before a General Election.

Look at the video. Contrary to the the Mail’s claims in writing you can see that I was tame and compliant to the dancer’s instructions in the footage. I refute any suggestion therefore of ‘pestering’ and can confirm that I was certainly not issued a warning at any time by the club. It is widely known that in establishments such as these the slightest infraction will render the misbehaving visitor out on the street within seconds. Yet, I left unhindered and on my own accord.

So what could possibly explain all this? Followers of my counter-extremism work will be aware that for years liberal Muslim voices like mine have been subjected to sustained personal attack. Organised incitement (hurryupharry.org/2014/02/03/more-horrifying-death-threats-against-maajid-nawaz/), death threats (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/10588267/Lib-Dem-candidate-receives-death-threats-for-tweeting-Prophet-Mohammed-cartoon.html) and even physical assault (http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/article176412.ece) are frequent occurrences. The article mentions my son from a previous marriage, the truth is I have been denied contact with him for three years now for very similar reasons. Challenging the Muslim status quo today is mercilessly punishing business.

There is no doubt in my mind that this breach of my privacy was part of a pre-planned regressive-Muslim campaign (https://storify.com/Andrew_Nolan/maajid-nawaz-hatchet-job). My wife Rachel had in fact been receiving scary unsolicited emails very soon after my stag night last July from this strip club’s staff member. This staff member calls himself “Shah Free Gaza Jahan” on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jahan79). He began planning this sting last year, immediately after my wedding, in collusion (https://www.facebook.com/jahan79) with a smear site called Mushy Peas. This site had already published (mushypeas.org/maajid-nawaz-wife/) photos of Rachel’s home, family profiles and private email address inviting people to harass her. To quote “Shah Free Gaza Jahan” from as far back as last October 2014 from the screen grab (https://plus.google.com/photos/115464022605493800937/albums/6137636038894699329?authkey=CLTylvHUv6bUAg) of that smear site on his motives:

“I have a very interesting story regarding this fraud. Who can I contact to get his out? I was reluctant to let this out as we should cover another Muslims sins. But he’s an atheist (sic) now. So we good”.

After explaining that atheists seem to be fair game for him (for the record I am a Muslim), Shah Jahan was promptly redirected by a known caliphate supporting Islamist Dilly Hussain (hurryupharry.org/2014/08/19/bullying-women-is-not-one-of-the-5-pillarz-of-islam/) to make contact via his infamous regressive 5Pillarz blog. This is all there in that screen grab for all to see. And thus last October, the plot was hatched.

This is how a politically conservative newspaper unwittingly cooperated with religiously regressive Muslims, to discredit my politically and religiously liberal voice.

It is no surprise to me that this latest episode of my dehumanisation culminated yesterday in yet another call from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism branch, who warned of new specific ISIS calls for my death after this latest smear campaign went viral. Yesterday evening and for the first time, counter-terrorism police ordered the installation of a direct panic alarm in my home from fear of a terrorist attack.

I humbly advise journalists, therefore, who are in touch with Islamist smear merchants to maintain a healthy skepticism around the credibility of those coming to them as sources against reform-minded Muslims.

This brings me finally to what I wish to express contrition for. I am indeed sorry for many things. I am sorry that though I have every right to behave as I like within the law, many will have seen that footage and wished that I had chosen not to go. I am sorry to Rachel, my son, and my family. Though Rachel knew that I had gone, this has thrust her and others into the spotlight unnecessarily. I am sorry to my Liberal Democrat colleagues, for distracting them from important campaign work due to a decision made in the moment. I am sorry to those who respect the counter-extremism work that I do, for placing them in a position of having to defend my rights, rather than praise my choices. And I am sorry to my fellow Muslims, because though I never claim to speak on their behalf, their widespread offence indicates that perhaps they wish I was a better role model for them. For all of you, I will try harder to live better, not just remain within my rights, but to do what is right. Rachel was correct, in times such as these, people need more than just ‘ordinary’.

Maajid Nawaz
‪#‎Solidarity‬

Smear or Glory

After reading Maajid’s response, I could sympathise with him based on the outrageous lengths Jay Shah went to try and out him since July last year. On the other hand, it is difficult as Nawaz has gone from being an extremist to an über liberal within the space of a few years.

How is this possible?

Is Nawaz easily manipulated or is he merely pandering to popular opinion to gain more votes?

It seems Nawaz has emerged from the proverbial creek and into a brief moment of glory. How you might ask? Well, it seems Maajid has been clear from the outset claiming that he was a liberal Muslim. And never claimed to be devout but was always under the scope by fellow Muslims regardless.

“ And I am sorry to my fellow Muslims, because though I never claim to speak on their behalf, their widespread offence indicates that perhaps they wish I was a better role model for them.”

However, my sympathy for Maajid stops pretty abruptly as his following comment leaves much to be desired for feminists or otherwise.

“Some feminists take the view that visiting such gentlemen’s clubs objectifies women. Others, many women too, take a more sex-positive view, and believe that erotic dancing is empowering to women.”

According to Maajid, there are two sides to the coin: some feminists believe gentleman’s clubs objectifies women.

Yep, pretty much.

Or some other women take the view that erotic-dancing is empowering!

It’s baffling how a prospective liberal MP with an MSc in Political Theory can believe that erotic dancing in a strip club can be the epitome of female empowerment. This view combined with his attempts to touch a dancer without her consent goes a long way in proving Maajid’s blatant disregard for women and their rights. Therefore, any claims to be a feminist is buried under a 6 inch stiletto on a vaulted platform.

Also, the suggestion that the Daily Mail has deliberately orchestrated a smear campaign is hogwash, as he only admitted his indiscretions 10 months after the incident. If I were to offer any advice to Maajid would be quit the day job and understand the issues surrounding erotic dancers highlighted in a Stanford University report outlining a “feminist perspective on sex markets.”

Aqib Shaikh

#EducateYourself