A global culture to fight extremism Maajid Nawaz

have you ever wondered why extremism

seems to have been on the rise in

muslim-majority countries over the

course of the last decade have you ever

wondered how such a situation can be

turned around have you ever looked at

the Arab uprisings and thought how could

we have predicted that or how could we

have better prepared for that well my

personal story my personal journey what

brings me to the Ted stage here today is

a demonstration of exactly what’s been

happening in muslim-majority societies

over the course of the last two decades

at least and beyond I want to share some

of that story with you but also some of

my ideas around change and the role of

social movements in creating change in

muslim-majority societies so let me

begin by first of all giving a very very

brief history of time if I may indulge

in medieval societies they were defined

allegiances and identity was defined

primarily by religion and then we moved

on into an era in the nineteenth century

with the rise of a European nation state

when identities and allegiances were

defined by ethnicity so identity was

primarily defined by ethnicity and the

nation-state reflected that in the age

of globalization we moved on I call it

the era of citizenship where people

could be from multiracial multi-ethnic

backgrounds but all be equal as citizens

in a state you could be American Italian

you can be American Irish you could be

British Pakistani but I believe now that

we’re moving into a new age and that age

the New York Times dubbed recently as

the age of behavior how I define the age

of behavior is a period of transnational

allegiances where identities define more

so by ideas and narratives and these

ideas and narratives that bond people

across borders are increasingly

beginning to affect the way in which

people behave now this is not all

necessary good news because it’s also my

belief that hatred has gone global just

as much as love but actually it’s my

belief that the people who’ve been truly

capitalizing on this age of behavior

up until now up until recent times up

until the last six months the people who

have been capitalizing most on the age

of behavior and the transnational

allegiances using digital activism and

other sorts of of borderless

technologies those who have been

benefiting from this have been

extremists and that’s something which

I’d like to elaborate on if we look at

Islamists if we look at the phenomenon

of far-right fascists one thing they’ve

been very good at one thing that they’ve

been actually exceeding in is

communicating across borders using

technologies to organize themselves to

propagate their message and to create

truly global phenomena now I should know

because for 13 years of my life I was

involved in an extreme Islamist

organization and I was actually a potent

force in spreading ideas across borders

and I witnessed the rise of Islamist

extremism as distinct from Islam the

faith and the way in which it influenced

my co-religionists across the world and

my story my personal story is truly

evidence for the age of behavior that

I’m attempting to elaborate upon here I

was by the way I’m an Essex lad born and

raised in Essex in the UK anyone who’s

from England knows the reputation that

we have from Essex but having been born

in Essex at the age of 16 I joined an

organisation at the age of 17 I was

recruiting people from Cambridge

University to this organization at the

age of 19 I was on the National

leadership of this organisation in the

UK at the age of 21 I was co-founding

this organisation in Pakistan at the age

of 22 I was co-founding this

organisation in Denmark by the age of 24

I found myself convicted in prison in

Egypt being blacklisted from three

countries in the world for attempting to

overthrow their governments being

subjected to torture in Egyptian jails

and sentenced to five years as a

prisoner of conscience now that journey

and what took me from Essex all the way

across the world by the way we were

laughing at democratic activists we felt

they were there from the age of

yesteryear we

that they were out of date I learned how

to use emails from the extremist

organization that I used I learned how

to effectively communicate across

borders without being detected

eventually I was detected of course in

Egypt but the way in which I learnt to

use technology to my advantage was

because I was within an extremist

organization that was forced to think

beyond the confines of the nation-state

the age of behavior where ideas and

narratives were increasingly defining

behavior and identity and allegiances so

as I said we looked to the status quo

and ridiculed it and it’s not just

Islamist extremists that did this but

even if you look across the mood music

in Europe of late far-right fascism is

also on the rise a form of anti Islam

rhetoric is also on the rise and it’s

transnational and the consequence is

that this is having is that is affecting

the political climate across Europe

what’s actually happening is that what

were previously localized parochialism

x' individual or groupings of extremists

who are isolated from one another have

become interconnected in a globalized

way and have thus become or are becoming

mainstream because the internet and

connection technologies are connecting

them across the world if you look at the

rise of far-right fascism across Europe

of late you will see some things that

are happening that are influencing

domestic politics yet the phenomenon is

transnational in certain countries

mosque minarets are being banned in

others head scarves are being banned in

others kosher and halal meat are being

banned as we speak and on the flip side

we have transnational Islamist

extremists doing the same thing across

their own societies and so they are

pockets of parochialism that are being

connected in a way that makes them feel

like they are mainstream now that never

would have been possible before they

would have felt isolated until these

sorts of technologies came around and

connected them in a way that made them

feel part of a larger phenomenon where

does that leave democracy aspirants well

I believe they’re getting left far

behind and I’ll give you an example here

at this stage if any of you remembers

the Christmas Day bomber

plot there’s a man called Anwar Awlaki

is an American citizen ethnically a

Yemeni in hiding currently in Yemen who

inspired a Nigerian son of the head of

the Nigeria’s National Bank this

Nigerian students studied in London

trained in Yemen born in a flight in

Amsterdam to attack America in the

meanwhile the old mentality with a

capital o was represented by his father

the head of the Nigerian bank warning

the CIA that his own son was about to

attack and this warning fell on deaf

ears the old mentality with a capital o

as represented by the nation-state not

yet fully into the age of behavior not

recognizing the power of transnational

social movements got left behind and the

kiss Christmas Day bomber almost

succeeded in attacking the United States

of America again with the example of the

far right that we find ironically

xenophobic xenophobic nationalists are

utilizing the benefits of globalization

so why are they succeeding and why our

democracy aspirants falling behind well

we need to understand the power of a

social movement to understand this and a

social movement is comprised in my view

it’s comprised of four main

characteristics it’s comprised of ideas

and narratives and symbols and leaders

I’ll talk you through one example and

that’s the example that everyone here

will become aware of and that’s the

example of al-qaeda if I ask you to

think of the ideas of al-qaeda that’s

something that comes to your mind

immediately if I ask you to think of

their narratives the West being a war

with Islam the need to defend Islam

against the West these narratives they

come to your mind immediately

incidentally the difference between

ideas and narratives the idea is the

cause that one believes in and the

narrative is the way to sell that course

the propaganda if you like of the course

so the ideas and the narratives of

al-qaeda come to your mind immediately

if I ask you to think of their symbols

and their leaders they come to your mind

immediately one of the leaders was just

killed in Pakistan recently so these

symbols and these leaders come to your

mind immediately and that’s the power of

social movements they’re transnational

and they bond around these ideas and

narratives and these symbols and these

leaders however

if I ask your minds to focus currently

on Pakistan and if I ask you to think of

the symbols and the leaders for

democracy in Pakistan today you will be

hard-pressed to think beyond perhaps the

assassination of Benazir Bhutto which

means by definition that particular

leader no longer exists one of the

problems we’re facing is in my view that

there are no globalized youth-led

grassroots social movements advocating

for democratic culture across Muslim

majority societies there is no

equivalent of the al-qaeda without the

terrorism for democracy across Muslim

majority societies there are no ideas

and narratives and leaders and symbols

advocating the democratic culture on the

ground so that begs the next question

why is it that extremist organizations

whether of the far-right or of the

Islamist extremism Islamism meaning

those who wish to impose one version of

Islam over the rest of society why is it

that they are succeeding in organizing

in a globalized way whereas those who

aspire to democratic culture are falling

behind and I believe that’s for four

reasons I believe number one its

complacency because those who aspire to

democratic culture are in power or have

societies that are leading globalized

powerful societies powerful countries

and that level of complacency means they

don’t feel the need to advocate for that

culture the second I believe is

political correctness that we have a

hesitation in espousing the universality

of democratic culture because we

associate that we associate believing in

the universality of our values with

extremists yet actually whenever we talk

about human rights we do say that human

rights are reverse Universal but

actually going out to propagate that

view is associated with either

neoconservative ISM or with Islamist

extremism to go around saying that I

believe democratic culture is the best

that we’ve arrived at as a form of

political organizing is associated with

extremism and the third Democratic

choice in muslim-majority societies has

been relegated to a political choice

meaning political parties in many of

these societies ask people to vote for

them as the Democratic Party but then

the other parties ask them to vote for

them as the military party wanting to

rule by military dictatorship and then

you have a third party saying vote for

us we will establish a theocracy so

democracy has become merely one

political choice among many other forms

of political choices available in those

societies and what happens as a result

of this is when those parties are

elected and inevitably they fail or

inevitably they make political mistakes

democracy takes the blame for their

political mistakes and then people say

we’ve tried democracy doesn’t really

work let’s bring the military back again

and the fourth reason I believe is what

I’ve labeled here on the slide is the

ideology of resistance what I mean by

that is if the world superpower today

was a communist it would be much easier

for democracy activists to use democracy

activism as a form of resistance against

colonialism than it is today with a

world superpower being America occupying

certain lands and also espousing

democratic ideals

so roughly these four reasons make it a

lot more difficult for democratic

culture to spread as a civilizational

choice not merely as a political choice

when talking about those reasons let’s

break down certain preconceptions is it

just about grievances is it just about a

lack of education while statistically

the majority of those who join extremist

organizations are highly educated

statistically they are educated on

average above the education levels of

Western society anecdotally we can

demonstrate that if poverty was the only

factor or bin Laden is from one of the

richest families in Saudi Arabia his

deputy Manas wari was a pediatrician not

an ill educated man international aid

and development has been going on for

years but extremism in those societies

and many of those societies being on the

rise

and what I believe is missing is genuine

grassroots activism on the ground in

addition to international aid in

addition to education in a dish

to health not exclusive to these things

but in addition to them is propagating a

genuine demand for democracy on the

ground and this is where I believe

neoconservative ISM had it upside down

near conservativism had the philosophy

that you go in with a supply led

approach to impose democratic values

from the top-down

whereas Islamist and far-right

organizations for decades have been

building demand for their ideology on

the grassroots they’ve been building

civilizational demand for their values

on the grassroots and we’ve been seeing

those societies slowly transition to

societies that are increasingly asking

for a form of Islamism mass movements in

Pakistan have been represented after the

Arab uprisings mainly by organizations

claiming for some form of theocracy

rather than for a democratic uprising

because since pre partition they’ve been

building demand for their ideology on

the ground and what’s needed is a

genuine transnational youth-led movement

that works to actively advocate for the

democratic culture which is necessarily

more than just elections but without

freedom of speech you can’t have free

and fair elections without human rights

you don’t have the protection granted to

you to campaign without freedom of

belief you don’t have the right to join

organizations so what’s needed is those

organizations on the ground advocating

for the democratic culture itself to

create the demand on the ground for this

culture what that will do is avoid the

problem I was talking about earlier

where currently we have political

parties presenting democracy as a merely

a political choice in those societies

alongside other choices such as military

rule and theocracy whereas if we start

building this demand on the ground on a

civilizational level rather than merely

on a political level a level above

politics movements that are not

political parties but are rather

creating this civilizational demand for

this democratic democratic culture what

will have in the end is this ideal that

you see on the slide here the ideal that

people should vote in an existing

democracy not for a democracy but to get

to that stage where democracy builds the

fabric of society and the political

choices within that

fabrica left-wing or right-wing but are

certainly not theocratic and military

dictatorship are you voting in a

democracy in an existing democracy and

that democracy is not nearly one of the

choices at the ballot box to get to that

stage we genuinely need to start

building demand in those societies on

the ground now to conclude how does that

happen well Egypt is a good starting

point the outter uprisings have

demonstrated that this is already

beginning but what happened in the Arab

uprisings in what happened in Egypt was

particularly cathartic for me what

happened there was a political coalition

gathered together for a political goal

and that was to remove the leader we

need to move one step beyond that now we

need to see how we can help those

societies move from political

coalition’s loosely based political

coalition’s to civilizational

coalition’s that are working for the

ideals and narratives of the democratic

culture on the ground because it’s not

enough to remove a leader or a ruler or

a dictator that doesn’t guarantee the

what comes next will be society built on

democratic values but generally the

trends that starts in Egypt have

historically spread across the meno

region the Middle East in North Africa

region

so when Arab socialism starting in Egypt

it spread across the region in the 80s

and 90s when Islamism started in the

region it spread across the ameno region

as a whole and the aspiration that we

have at the moment as young Arabs are

proving today and instantly rebranding

themselves as being prepared to die for

more than just terrorism is that there

is a chance the democratic culture can

start in the region and spread across to

the rest of the countries that are

surrounding that but that will require

helping these societies transition from

having merely political coalition’s to

building genuinely grassroots based

social movements that advocate for the

democratic culture and we’ve made a

start for that in Pakistan with a

movement called hoody where we are

working on the ground to to to encourage

the youth to create genuine Byam for the

democratic culture and it’s with that

thought that I’ll end and my time is up

and thank you for your time

you