COMMA Network

Networking Ministries to Muslims in North America

  • HOME
  • Calendar of Events
  • CONTACT US
  • LINKS
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • History of COMMA
    • COMMA Local Groups
  • Resources
    • Ministry Resources
      • Books
        • Muslim Evangelism
        • Testimonies
      • Jesus Film Project: Free Tools for Evangelism
      • Bibles
      • World Relief Resources
      • Tracts
      • Discipleship Resources
      • Recursos en Espanol
      • Farsi Language Resources
      • Prayer
    • Online Resources
      • Apps
      • Booklets
      • COMMA Network YouTube
      • Other Online Resources
    • Muslim Ministry DVDs
    • Training Centers / Programs
  • Approaches
    • Overcoming Fear of Muslims
    • Building Friendships with Muslims
    • Equip Your Church to Reach Muslims
    • 7 Approaches to Muslims
    • Types of Muslims in the Modern World: The Many Voices of Islam
    • Testimonies
    • Islam in North America
    • Campus Ministry
    • Ministry of Hospitality
    • Muslim Women
    • Keys to the Iranian Heart
    • African American Muslims
    • Does Goodness Live In You?
  • Editorials
  • Articles
  • Members

Reform Muslims Stand Up To Take On the Ideology of Islamism

March 29, 2016 By COMMA Network

By Maajid Nawaz

We are in the midst of a Muslim Reform – do not miss the wood for the trees.
The tragic attacks in Brussels this week mark the arrival of the global jihadist insurgency to Europe. The deaths of over 34 people in coordinated attacks in the heart of Europe’s capital had me pondering how we got here, and how far we have yet to go.
This month of March marks ten years since my release as an Islamist political prisoner from Egypt’s Mazra Tora prison. To stave off madness in solitary confinement, I used to organize races between pebbles that I flicked across the floor of my cell, naming them Freddy-Fred and Johnny-John. My cell had no lights, no toilet and no sheets for the first four months. In those early days, among the concrete and cockroaches, I found solace in the one item I was allowed to keep with me, a pocket-sized version of the Qur’an. I eventually memorized half of it under the light of the moon as it shone through the bars of the skylight and into my cell. The echo of my voice in that cell as I chanted the passages remains with me till this day. As does the same pocket-sized Qur’an, which I preserve with mixed feelings as a keepsake.

It is surreal to think back now and consider how dogmatic and intellectually inflexible I had become by the age of my arrest as an Islamist at 24. My rage stares out, piercing the lens of the prison guard who snapped this mugshot that I eventually smuggled out of prison with me. Our defiance of the World Order was on display for all to see as we marched in and out of that Cairo court raising slogans against our torturers as loudly as we could muster.
There we were, a vanguard, calling for the return of a “Caliphate” that we would eventually denounce when ISIS declared one 12 years later.
Over those next five years in jail my hardened immaturity softened, as I experienced the contradictions of life in a setting akin to Orwell’s Animal Farm, but for jihadists. There, as far back as 2002 I witnessed conversations among cellmates about how slavery would be reinstituted under our caliphate, and how the world would come to be conquered through jihad. I eventually became convinced that if we Islamists achieved what we had been romanticizing, we would come to destroy everything beautiful around us.

Click here to continue reading Reform Muslims

Filed Under: History, Politics Tagged With: Brussels, Daily Beast, Muslim, Nawaz, Reform

Search

About Us

  • What is COMMA
    • COMMA Local Groups
  • History of COMMA
  • Contact Us

Resources

  • Books
  • Testimonial Books
  • Evangelism Books
  • Booklets
  • Tracts
  • Recursos en Espanol
  • Jesus Film Project: Free Tools for Evangelism
  • Muslim Ministry DVDs
  • Farsi Language Resources
  • Bibles
  • Prayer
  • World Relief Resources
  • Other Online Resources
  • Training Centers / Programs
  • Lausanne Recommendations
  • COMMA Network YouTube

COMMA

COMMA is a coalition of Christian agencies that network together to reach and disciple Muslims in North America.

COMMA exists to

  • Network
  • Equip
  • Teach

Recent posts

  • Turkey to deport American Islamic State detainee after Greece slams door
  • American-Born Woman Who Joined ISIS Is Not a Citizen, Judge Rules
  • Mary vs. Aminah: Why Did Allah So Honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus? Tawhid Dilemma Ep. 9

Resources

  • Books
  • Testimonial Books
  • Evangelism Books
  • Booklets
  • Tracts
  • Recursos en Espanol
  • Jesus Film Project: Free Tools for Evangelism
  • Muslim Ministry DVDs
  • Farsi Language Resources
  • Bibles
  • Prayer
  • World Relief Resources
  • Other Online Resources
  • Training Centers / Programs
  • Lausanne Recommendations
  • COMMA Network YouTube

Approaches to Muslims

  • Campus Ministry
  • 7 Approaches to Muslims
  • Keys to the Iranian Heart
  • Ministry of Hospitality
  • Muslim Women
  • Sharing Christ with African American Muslims

Categories

  • Ahmadiya Islam
  • American Islam
  • Apologetics
  • Asylum
  • Believer from a Muslim Background
  • Book Reviews
  • Burka
  • Community
  • Converts
  • Culture
  • Demographics
  • Diaspora
  • Discipleship
  • Donation
  • Dreams
  • Europe
  • Evangelism
  • Family
  • Fasting
  • Folk Islam
  • Hajj
  • Hijab
  • History
  • Holidays
  • Hospitality
  • Immigrant
  • Immigration
  • Insider Movement
  • Interfaith Dialogue
  • Iran
  • Islam
  • Islamic Reform
  • Islamophobia
  • Jesus
  • Latino Islam
  • Marriage
  • Mecca
  • Mosque
  • Muhammad
  • Nation of Islam
  • Persecuted Church
  • Politics
  • Prayer
  • Qibla
  • Qur'an
  • Radical Islam
  • Ramadan
  • Refugees
  • Scholarship
  • Scripture
  • Second Generation
  • Sects
  • Shari'a
  • Shiite
  • Slavery
  • Social Media
  • Terrorism
  • Testimony
  • Theology
  • Uncategorized
  • Women