'1984: Thoughtcrime'

On 27th June 2009, Maajid Nawaz was invited to speak at a panel discussion entitled '1984: Thoughtcrime’ as part of the Orwell Prize festival. The other panellists were Jo Glanville (editor of Index on Censorship) and Hopi Sen (blogger, ‘Blog from the Backroom’), and the event was chaired by journalist Patrick Marmion.

‘Thoughtcrime’ was one of the most terrifying of Orwell’s crimes in his novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, where even thinking in opposition to the regime was considered an offence. 60 years after the novel was written, is thoughtcrime a reality?

Maajid was invited to speak on the basis of his adoption as a 'prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International whilst in a prison in Egypt, serving a sentence for his membership of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT). He gave his views on the following questions:

• Are there certain thoughts and beliefs which should be punished?
• How should society deal with those whose thoughts go beyond accepted political and social norms?
• What does it feel like to think the unthinkable, controversial and uncomfortable?

His talk was followed by a Q&A.