Sohail Ahmed Interview (Former Islamist)

Sohail Ahmed is a hard man to get a hold of. A reformed radical Islamist, he was instrumental in exposing the prevalence of radical Islamism in a number of UK Universities. Today, he works as a counter-extremism & counter-terrorism expert, offering advice to UK government agencies and a number of NGOs. He has appeared in the media in the UK and the US and written about his personal journey in a number of publications. He also campaigns for LGBT rights in the Muslim community, and has been a strong steady voice against Islamic extremism.

I’ve known Sohail for many years and have wanted to interview him about his life for a very long time. As you’ll hear, it’s quite a story. We cover his growing up in a radical islamist environment, the process through which he was further radicalized and how he eventually broke free from that environment. We talk about Islam today,what a progressive version of Islam might look like and how we could get there. We talk UK politics and immigration and about how his views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict changed over the years.

I hope you enjoy this discussion.

On YouTube:

On SoundCloud.

Islam and the Future of Tolerance

“Islam and the future of tolerance” is a book, audiobook and film, based on the homonymous discussion between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz that took place at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in 2015. Sam Harris is a well known author, philosopher and neuroscientist, Maajid Nawaz a former extremist turned political activist and founder of the Quilliam foundation, the world's first counter-extremism think-tank. The discussion is honest, nuanced and extremely well informed, given the particular areas of expertise of the interlocutors. Following their original dialogue, Harris and Nawaz remained in contact and expanded on the topics raised to further clarify their respective points, making notes along the way. The result of this effort is arguably one of the most informative, genuine and clear-sighted discussions you are likely to find on this topic. 

Film: 

https://islamandthefutureoftolerance.com/ 

Paperback: 

https://www.amazon.com/Islam-Future-Tolerance-Sam-Harris/dp/0674088700 

Audiobook: 

https://www.amazon.com/Islam-and-Future-of-Tolerance-audiobook/dp/B019711Z88 

First discussion (2015): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWclm4Bi4UM