Maajid Nawaz: ‘I’m challenging the anti-Semite I used to be’

They often say that somebody who has truly seen and lived in the darkness is often very capable of lifting that veil and bringing to it some light, even if only for a little bit.

As some of you may know I have seen that darkness and lived it.

It’s why when I challenge anti-Semitism as much as I can through various platforms that I’ve been blessed with, why I do it is because often- and I’ve never said this before- I am challenging that anti-Semite that I used to be as a young man.  I see that and I hate it, and I want to make sure that no other young Muslim grows up in this country or anywhere else in the world and adopts those ideas.

Back in those days when the genocide was going on in Bosnia and we were facing some severe racism here in the UK there were no role models.

There were no voices to speak out in the way that I and many others Dilwar ( Dilwar Hussein) and Fiyaz (Fiyaz Mughul MBE) and all of the others who have been nominated try and do so today.

So especially from within the Muslim community it is so important that those voices speak out, because you as a community face what I call these days the triple threat of antisemitism.

That’s coming from the far left, the far right and from the heaven’s above the Islamist theocrats.

But I’m here to say to you tonight that if we have anything to do with it, you will never be left alone again, so thank you very much.

• Transcript of Maajid Nawaz’s speech delivered at the Jewish News Night of Heroes