Guardian opinion desk editor, David Shariatmadari, has published an interview with Maajid Nawaz that is biased and deliberately misleading. This comes a week after the Guardian published a puff piece for a leader of Islamist extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir by Peter Oborne, in which the two come across as friends who occasionally go out for dinner together.
Maajid himself responded to the interview with a Facebook post in which he itemised the criticisms David made and offered detailed responses he claims were omitted from the final cut.
In particular, he mentions David’s unwillingness to highlight the violent nature of the theocratic revolution Hizb ut Tahrir aspires to, instead taking a cheap shot at Maajid’s failure to get elected as an MP and a number of anonymous negative quotes that point to Maajid’s unpopularity in certain circles.
.... This episode speaks to why we as a society are finding it so difficult to grapple with Islamist extremism. We still have sections of the media which find it useful for scoring parochial ideological points. Brave reformist voices have to contend with slings and arrows from within their communities; but also from activist journalists at supposedly liberal media outlets.
In the meantime, Islamist recruitment and propaganda efforts continue unabated. [Left Foot Forward] Read more
