Maajid Nawaz Streisands Himself

Yesterday, Maajid Nawaz, who continues to be given a platform by broadcaster LBC at weekends, was in his social media pomp. He had, not for the first time, threatened legal action against a critic, had received an apology, and didn’t mind who knew it.

Maajid Nawaz ...

... and someone whose experience he is repeating

Eddie Marsan had asserted that Nawaz was “a shock jock who promotes dangerous conspiracy theories” (see my post from November on this). Nawaz rather grandly considered Marsan’s retraction and pontificated “To my knowledge, we have never met. You have apologised for what I believe has been yet another concerted campaign to libel & defame me on here simply for commenting on constitutional processes in the US election debacle. Best to leave it now. Thanks”. And, sadly, there was more.

“PS: ignore all the paid-for farmed PR accounts in my mentions. They are recognisable by their overly hostile rhetoric, bolstered by their anonymous nature, their recent joining date, and their overly obsessed trolling on one topic usually with a low follower count”. He really was acting all grand. But Peter Jukes of Byline Media was not impressed.

“No one's defaming you, Maajid. Even your LBC colleagues have called you out for peddling baseless conspiracy theories from the dark corners of the web. Free speech does give us the right to criticise you for that. Stop reaching for your lawyers. It's authoritarian & chilling”. Ines Helene (“Cinnamon bun hard traditionalist”) was less subtle in her criticism.

“Maajid is a total asshole and has no business running a radio show. Sue me! Another version of ‘I've screengrabbed your libellous tweet. Let's talk through our lawyers. I'm represented by Rudy Giuliani and the Four Season Total Landscaping. You'll be hearing from me. Thank you’” she snapped, adding “Logged and captured you disingenuous hack”.

This was now shaping up to be a campaign destined to develop not necessarily to Nawaz’ advantage, especially when Sunder Katwala, a trenchant critic of his, stopped by and observed “Here [Maajid Nawaz] settles for a not very sincere apology from [Eddie Marsan] who did not want the hassle of defending his entirely defensible observation that Maajid Nawaz was spreading conspiracy theories, which Marsan observes was clearly valid”.

Then came the development of a Streisand moment as Katwala added “I could not see the legal risk in [Eddie Marsan] calling [Maajid Nawaz] ‘a self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories’ since he is a polemical radio host ('shock jock' is a common shorthand) who certainly promotes dangerous conspiracy theories. Feel free to RT”. Jonathan Portes heard that one. “I entirely agree with [Sunder Katwala]. It is entirely reasonable to describe [Maajid Nawaz] as a ‘self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories.’ I note that Nawaz has previously made groundless and laughable threats to sue me for libel. Pathetic”. It then got worse for Nawaz.

After Steve Jones decided “I would like to go on record and say that [Maajid Nawaz] is a self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories”, Peter Jukes returned to the fray. “I [would] like to add, in my honest opinion, that [Maajid Nawaz] is [a] self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories, based on the evidence of the dangerous conspiracy theories about the US elections he promotes”.

Following Nick Cohen’s intervention, “Man up [Maajid Nawaz] and get a fucking grip”, one Tweeter added “I’d like it to be known that, in my honest opinion, [Maajid Nawaz] has become a self publicising shock jock who promotes dangerous conspiracy theories. I do not apologise for stating this”. He tagged lawyer Mark Lewis, who has acted for Nawaz.

Saj Malik brought us another S-Word: “It is entirely reasonable to describe [Maajid Nawaz] as a ‘self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories’ … I am Spartacus”. Not going too well, was it? And it got worse when Eddie Marsan returned.

He told simply “[Maajid Nawaz] In my opinion You tried to intimidate me by threatening legal action, something that could possibly take away my children’s home & now you’re asking for polite discourse, do you mind if I don’t take you up on the offer & just tell you to fuck off!” Now the whole world knows about Nawaz’ threats and bullying.

And in my opinion, to which I am entitled, Maajid Nawaz is a self publicising shock jock promoting dangerous conspiracy theories. So go on, O Great Man, and sue us all.

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