Radical

My Journey out of Islamist Extremism

Maajid Nawaz, 2013

Nawaz was born in Southend of Pakistani parents in 1978. Abused by other kids, he encountered Islam, both as a guiding principle and a threat against gangs. But this was radical, Islamist, restore-the-caliphate, blame-the-west Islam, sparked by western indifference to the fate of caucasian Muslims in Bosnia, based on a very selective mix of Koran and western nationalism.

This is not the scimitar-wielding woman-mutilating Jihadism that led to the Taliban, but it still is at odds with many Muslim dictatorships, where Nawaz went as a recruiter. In Egypt, he was arrested by Mubarrak's secret police, abused, threatened with torture, and spent years in prison. There, he learned about the much richer and complete Koran, and met leaders of the future Arab spring in Egypt. He was released with the help of Amnesty International.

He now leads a London thinktank, Quilliam

He quotes this translation of Jalaluddin Rumi on page 179:

• Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah ... it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you."

This may be a too-secular translation; others point out that this bowdlerizes Rumi's more Allah-centric verse.