Review of Radical by Maajid Nawaz (WH Allen, £12.99) Born and raised in Southend, Maajid Nawaz was a victim of unprovoked attacks, the so-called “Paki-bashing” by groups of white men; and he suffered from the institutional racism in the police revealed in the Macpherson Report, when his brother and he were falsely arrested for armed robbery. This and the stories of atrocities against Muslims in Bosnia led him to being disillusioned with western society, so he was ripe for a change of direction. Won over by their ideological narrative, he was recruited by Hizb al-Tahrir, an extreme Islamist group founded in 1953 in Jerusalem. It has three aims: it seeks primarily to overthrow regimes; from this it hopes to create a pan-Islamist super-state to rule the world; and finally it wants to destroy the state of Israel.

Nawaz assures readers that Hizb al-Tahrir is not a terrorist organisation, and that it does not encourage direct violence. But he accepts that violence might be an unintended consequence. He gives an explanation of the distinction between Islamism and Islam: Islamism is a desire to impose an interpretation of the religious faith of Islam over society, as law. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam.

For a few years, Nawaz recruited new members to the organisation before moving to Alexandria in Egypt, where he was head of the local cell. The authorities caught up with him, arrested him and incarcerated him in al-Gihaz, the Egyptian state security HQ, where was tortured and sentenced to five years.

Gradually during his imprisonment he changed his mind.

There were two main causes: Amnesty International adopted him as a Prisoner of Conscience and campaigned for his release; and he talked to leading jihadists and Islamists who were imprisoned with him. He had a political awakening.

Following his release, he left Hizb al-Tahrir as he could no longer believe in its aims. In fact he completely rejected Islamism, which he claims has created more injustice than it has fixed.

Now he tries to encourage democratic activism and campaigns against Islamism. His was indeed a “journey from Islamist extremism to a democratic awakening”.