Maajid Nawaz expertly debunks theory that Islam is 'inherently fundamentalist'

10 July 2021, 16:07

Maajid Nawaz debunks idea that islam is inherently fundamentalist

By Seán Hickey

After dismantling a caller's argument on extremism in Afghanistan, Maajid Nawaz explains how some people's views on Islam are flawed.

The enlightening moment came after Maajid Nawaz had a run-in with a regular caller who claimed that the idea that the West has destabilised Afghanistan is a "false narrative". The caller then proceeded to argue that the religion of Islam is a violent faith at its core.

"This idea that Islam as a religion stands alone as being naturally fundamentalist and violent is dodgy," Maajid said after ending his conversation with the caller.

He argued that the argument "somehow doesn't stand up – this idea that islam is naturally an aggressive fundamentalist religion, actually no it's not.

Maajid hits out at caller: 'Come on Simon, you're better than that.'

"If you look into the history of the rise of Islamism, as I've attempted to explain, primarily it came due to war and in fact it was used by us to stop the Soviet Union."

He pointed out that miitant Islamism "was used to fight at the time what the Americans called 'godless communism.'"

'It's not a defeat as it's never something we went out there to win.'

He urged callers to research their topics before calling in to make generalised statements: "You've got to know a little bit about the socioeconomic and political factors that gave rise to modern day Islamic fundamentalism to understand that there was nothing inherent about it."

Arguing against those who reference violent extracts of the Quran to clarify Islam as a violent religion, Maajid pointed out that "you can find justification in the old testament and the new testament for all manner of things."

"How ye choose and select and contextualise passages comes down, usually to the own biases we carry, and sometimes we're funded by those biases." He concluded.