“I realised that the idea of enforcing sharia is not consistent with Islam as it's been practised from the beginning. In other words, Islam has always been secular, and I had been totally ignorant of the fact.”

British activist and presenter

Maajid Usman Nawaz is a British activist and presenter who was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, to a British Pakistani family. He has worked for GB News and was the founding chairman of the think tank Quilliam. He previously hosted an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays until January 2022. Nawaz was once a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and that involvement led to his arrest in Egypt in December 2001. He remained imprisoned there until 2006. During that time, he read books on human rights and came into contact with Amnesty International, which adopted him as a prisoner of conscience. After leaving Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2007, he renounced his Islamist past and argued for a secular Islam.