Maajid Nawaz - Give Your Head A Shake

LBC host Maajid Nawaz is never short of a riposte, a comeback, a bon mot, to those who criticise him. Nor is he a stranger to engagement with the far right, as witness his apparent breakthrough to get Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, to renounce the EDL, although Lennon has since made a name for himself going after all those Scary Muslims™, and has had more than one brush with the law along the way.

Maajid Nawaz

The problem Nawaz has right now is that he appears to be immersing himself with more than the occasional batshit conspiracy theory, something rather more serious than when one Tweeter observed three years ago “Three brilliant minds come together. Alan Mendoza, Maajid Nawaz and Douglas Murray at HJS conference”. Doug Murray The K is well known for his Islamophobic bigotry. But that was just a discussion.

Last month it got worse. A great deal worse, as Nawaz decided to comment on the “Biden emails”, telling his followers “the allegations of kompromat & treason with china are so serious that it’d be impossible for Biden to remain president if these emails are real”.

If. But do go on. "I predict people will soon be forced to concede this [Joe Biden] ‘cash for foreign policy’ treason scandal may be substantive, and instead lobby for Biden as the ‘lesser of two evils’ … there’s one problem with that: very few evils are ‘less’ than treason with a genocidal regime”. It’s a far-right conspiracy theory, nothing more.

It wasn’t the first: Nawaz then quote Tweeted a conspiracy site claiming to have evidence that the US Presidential Election was being stolen. “Are we ready for this *discussion* folks? Or does 2+2=5?” Then he found out that the site peddled anti-Semitism.

So what did he do? "I have been altered that the above website hosts repugnant, objectionable anti-Semitic theories. Clearly, upon only reading the one article & asking for discussion, I had no idea what else the site hosts, for which I apologise unreservedly. I leave this here for public record”. He left the Tweet up. He did not delete it.

Then came “1) Recounts ongoing … 2) US Supreme Court already looking at Pennsylvania … 3) Senate judiciary committee investigating a sworn affidavit on fraud … 4) Electoral college hasn’t voted yet … 5) Senate must count the vote … Media called elections like this before, please be patient”. The Supreme Court claim is a new one. He also included the fake Washington Times “President Gore” front page.

Could it get worse? Afraid it could: “USPS whistleblower … who submitted an affidavit alleging voter fraud under oath, which media then reported he retracted … has retracted his retraction, insisting he was intimidated by Federal agents! C’mon guys! Is this not news?” No, it isn’t. It’s James O’Keeffe. You avoid James O’Keeffe if you’re sensible.

And yet worse, as Nawaz quotes Fox Business: “Staggering claims of criminal treason are made here by [General Flynn]’s reputable lawyer [Sidney Powell]: [Lou Dobbs] is right to be worried”. It’s just propagandists shilling for Trump and spewing out whatever far-right conspiracy nonsense they think it takes to make the mud stick.

Maajid Nawaz may not be worried. But if I was LBC management, I would be. Seriously.

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