People

Maajid Nawaz – Director

Maajid's experience in the field of Islamism stretches back to being 16-years-old, when he was recruited to Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Liberation Party). Maajid very quickly became a national speaker and an international recruiter for the Party, traveling first to Pakistan and then to Denmark to export the Party's ideology and set up cells from London. He was also in Egypt, where in 2002 he was detained, subjected to witnessing of torture, and then convicted to five years imprisonment for belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir. After Amnesty International’s adoption as a prisoner of conscience and a global campaign for his release, Maajid returned to the UK in March 2006 to join Hizb ut-Tahrir's national leadership committee. Maajid became one of only two members who joined Hizb ut-Tahrir's external Executive Committee and its then secret internal leadership, known as the Wilayah committee. In May 2007 Maajid unilaterally resigned his membership from the Party and in September 2007 he recanted Islamism on BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight.

Maajid's grasp and insight into Islamist thought is unique, due to years spent debating the intricacies of Islamist ideology with fellow prisoners at Mazra Tora, Cairo — the same prison complex as Sayyid Qutb. It was there that he met with leading and founding members of Egypt's most violent groups, including the surviving assassins of the late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadaat. During his time in the same prison he spoke at length with the Muslim Brotherhood leadership such as Mohammed al-Badee’ - who in his youth personally smuggled Qutb’s Milestones out from prison - and their spokesman Dr Essam el-Erian. Maajid also befriended Dr Sa'ad al-Din Ibrahim and the imprisoned runner-up to Egypt's 2006 presidential elections, the liberal head of the Tomorrow Party, Ayman Nur. Throughout this time, Maajid continued his studies, sitting with graduates of Cairo's al-Azhar University and Dar al-'Ulum. He specialised in the Arabic language whilst studying historical Muslim scholastics, sources of Islamic jurisprudence, Hadith historiography, the art of Qur'an recitation and committing half of the Qur'an to memory.

As a result of time spent in the Middle East, and sustained discussions with a wide range of personalities, Maajid has gained rare political insight into the complexities of Middle-East politics, religion, and the contemporary Muslim political mindset.

Maajid has featured heavily, both before and after leaving Hizb ut-Tahrir, on the British and global media. He has appeared, for example, on BBC's Hardtalk with Sarah Montague and BBC's Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, Channel 4 news, BBC World, Danish television and in Arabic on al-Jazeera among others.

Maajid regularly presents seminars and lectures on Islamism and Muslim political thought both in the UK and abroad. Upon leaving Hizb ut-Tahrir, he authored a booklet, Towards Political Engagement, detailing his ideological objections to Hizb ut-Tahrir in particular, and Islamism in general. He has also written for national newspapers, including The Times, and The Independent. He was cited by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in parliament when being asked about government policy towards dealing with extreme Islamist groups.

Maajid was born and raised in Essex, England. He is a graduate of Law and Arabic from the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He also pursued post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics (LSE) in Political Theory, with modules in, ‘Conflict, Violence and Terrorism’, ‘Religion and Politics’, and ‘Multiculturalism, Citizenship and Identity’.

Ed Husain – Co-Director

Born and raised in London, Ed has been involved in an array of Islamist groups in Britain and their front organisations, including Jamat-e-Islami, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hizb ut-Tahrir. In the early 90's, when these groups were first emerging, Ed was a highly effective strategist and campus recruiter who laid the ideological seeds for much of contemporary Islamism's manifestations in Britain. Some of Ed's recruits remain senior activists till this day. His eventual rejection of this ideology, documented in his book 'The Islamist', led him to a path of discovering pluralistic, normative Islam.

Ed has travelled widely across the Middle East. He studied history at university and then went on to learn Arabic at the University of Damascus during 2003-2005. He relocated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, before returning home to England in 2006. Ed holds an MA in Middle-East studies from SOAS, University of London. He is now pursuing doctoral studies in Arab experiences of post-colonial secularism.

Ed's highly-acclaimed book, The Islamist, was published by Penguin in 2007. Critical reviewers included, Martin Amis, John Gray, and Simon Jenkins. Ed's book has shifted the nature of the debate around Islamism to the extent that his contribution to this field has been acknowledged by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Ed has become a regular commentator on media discussions and civil society events about Muslims, multi-culturalism, Islamism, identity, liberty, extremism, and terrorism. He frequently appears on global and national television and has written for national newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph. Ed also lectures and debates across the country, perhaps his most well-known debate was against Ayan Hirsi Ali in late 2007.

Ed is a member of the Labour party. He is married to Faye, and they have a young daughter, Camilla.

Rashad Ali – Head of Research and Policy

Born and raised in Sheffield, Rashad is a specialist in Islamist economic theories, Muslim sectarianism, and an avid reader of classical Muslim scripture. Until recently, he was a leading member of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

He sat as an activities director on the secret command structure of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, the Wilayah committee. He was a contributor and a member of the editorial board of the group’s flagship publication, Khilafah magazine. He regularly wrote and edited many of the mass-distribution leaflets HT produced. His seniority and grasp of Party literature led him to become head of the ‘source cell’ in Britain, or instructor to cell instructors. He authored HT’s widely distributed book (now retracted by him), 'The Method to Re-establish the Khilafah'.

After a period of suspension from Hizb ut-Tahrir, the global leadership of the Party – or al-Qiyadah – requested Rashad return from Qatar to Britain to help in reviving UK Party activities. By that time, however, he had begun his journey out of Islamism altogether. Soon, his public disagreements and condemnation of the leadership led to his expulsion from Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Until early 2007, he was a lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He also taught at Taybah University in Medina. He recently worked as a financial consultant with Royal Sun Alliance, specialising in research and development of Muslim-related products and markets.

Rashad is the author of several articles on Islam and modernity, as well as demonstrating the scriptural deviancy of Islamism from traditional Muslim discourse.

Rashad holds an MA in Islamic studies from Loughborough University, majoring in Islamic Law and Economics. Among his other interests are classical literature and music.

Staff
Ashraf al-Hoque – Research Fellow

Ashraf was a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir for four years having been targeted by recruiters while reading for A-Levels at a south London further education college. While at university, Ashraf became an active inter-collegiate recruiter within the University of London.

It was while at university, reading Islamic history, that his radicalisation became reversed as a result of a detailed historiographical and epistemological enquiry in to the relationship between politics and Islam; prompted by his personal dissatisfaction towards the banal and rudimentary party-endorsed literature available. This, coupled with extensive traveling across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, equipped him for the adoption of a more nuanced, tolerant and inclusive interpretation of Islam and the wholesale rejection of Hizb-ut-Tahrir's Islamist ideology.

After leaving Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Ashraf chose to continue with his studies; completing his History degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2003. Ashraf went on to read for a Masters in Social Anthropology and is currently reading for a PhD in Social Anthropology at the same institution. Ashraf's research focuses around Muslim diasporans in the UK, particularly youth, and explores the supposed relationship between diaspora and contemporary "Islamic" radicalisation through a critical anthropological prism.

Ashraf was born in Bangladesh and raised in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, from early childhood. He attended a local state comprehensive school and further education college before securing a place at SOAS and moving to London.