[AmeshAdalja]

   One-line summary: Radical is an excellent book that delves into the psycho-epistemilogy of Islamism.

Last year Greg Salmieri recommended Maajid Nawaz’s Radical: My Journey Out of Islamic Extremism. After reading the book, I completely agree that this book is an important and extremely insightful contribution by a first-handed mind seeking to understand a complex mental phenomenon. As Greg noted, Nawaz, a British-borne Muslim, was for many years an active Islamist who was a true enemy of the West–which he now staunchly defends. I would say the primary virtue of the book is that Nawaz really delves into his psychology and even his psycho-epistemiology both when he was an Islamist and when he began to realize his errors–this is where his first-handedness is very apparent.

Some select quotes that I found very fascinating (emphasis added):

It was American subculture that laid the foundations for me to reject ‘the West’ entirely.

Reading classic English literature did for me what studying Islamic theology couldn’t; it forced my mind to grapple with moral dilemmas.

And as I started to decouple justice from Islamism in my mind, it was the beginning of the end of my belief in Islamism. If justice and Islamism were separated, then not only was it possible to have one without the other, it also meant that there were situations where the two might come into conflict.

It was an uncomfortable recognition, and not one that I swallowed immediately. I shied away from its implications for a long time, retreating back into the comfort of my Islamist beliefs. But as hard as I tried to bury them, I couldn’t shift the nagging thoughts I had in my mind.

There is something more compelling than state power, more intimidating than all the bullets, all the torture, and all the chains that a brutal dictatorship can muster. It is fiercer than the iron fist of a despot and stronger than the stench of death. Since time immemorial, kings, rulers, and generals have feared the power of an idea. An idea can outlive a demigod, outpace armies, and outlast censorship.

Slowly and alone, I began to unpick the last thirteen years of my indoctrination, concept by concept. Ideas that I had once held sacrosanct were unraveling in my mind, revealed as crude political deceptions. My whole character would have to change. Every moral frame of reference that I had built up in my mind required reevaluation.

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