Reformed militants speak of identity loss

LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A loss of national identity among the Arab diaspora and a radical alternative provided by some Muslim communities push people to militancy, reformers say.

Maajid Nawaz and Mohammed Mahboob Husain told students at Harvard University about their conversion from radicalized Muslims with the international Hizb ut-Tahrir to their ascendancy to the leadership of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremist center in London.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a pan-Islamic party seeking to unite all Muslim countries under the banner of Shariah, or Islamic law.

Nawaz said he suffered from a crisis in faith and identity while growing up in England, saying the combination of neo-Nazi movements and growing discrimination against European Muslims, particularly in Bosnia, turned him to Hizb ut-Tahrir as a source of direction.

"We weren't English. We weren't Pakistani, which was just a product of colonialism. We were instructed to shed false identities and hold allegiance to no one other than Muslims," he said.

For his part, Husain said there is a noticeable absence of a viable Muslim response to fundamentalist movements, a point Nawaz emphasized.

"The rule of law is vital," Nawaz said. "(The U.S. naval detention facility at Guantanamo Bay) and other measures that have been taken must be looked at critically. Somehow that chapter needs to be closed so people feel that everyone is equal before the law."