Maajid's Message Following Westminster Attack: 'This Is London. We Stand Together.'
25 March 2017, 12:36 | Updated: 25 March 2017, 12:57
In this must-watch clip Maajid Nawaz delivers a message to Londoners about solidarity following the Westminster terror attack.
Speaking publicly for the first time following the Westminster terror attack on Wednesday, Maajid Nawaz has a poignant message for Londoners and Britons alike.
On his Saturday morning LBC show, he said: "If we recognise that this is indeed an ideological struggle, and on the one side stands those who support theocratic Islamist ideals, and on the other, whether Muslim or not, whether Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour, or nonaligned.
"Whether politicians, or sports figures, or whoever they are, on the other side stand all of those who are united in solidarity, in their defence for secular liberal democrat, secular small 'l' liberal small 'd' democrat values. The values that make our civilisation so great.
"When understood in this way, it becomes impossible to divide us along religious lines. Instead, we're divided along the lines of those who are civilised, and believe in civilised values, and those who are prepared to kill in pursuit of theocratic values. That is the real division.
"Because Muslims are killed by these jihadists as well. Just as they kill non-Muslims. And Muslims stand with those who believe in secular liberal democratic values, just as the rest of Britain does as well.
"And the fact that £27,000 pounds has been raised by that website, stands as a perfect testament to that. And this attack, was an attack on those values, on secular liberal democracy. It was an attack on Parliament because Parliament symbolises those values.
"And it was an attack on the London, because London is the capital of our great democracy. But in doing so, they only reminded us, they reminded us of what we stand for, of what we believe in.
"Because though they killed four people, they also injured 50 and out of those that they also injured, and the four that they killed, they hailed from various countries from across the world.
"Eleven countries are represented by those victims, and that speaks to the great city that London is, so the cosmopolitan capital that it is. And so in attacking London, they only serve to remind us about what is so great about London.
"The fact that London is the greatest city in the world. It is a capital, it is a metropolitan, cosmopolitan centre for world cultures and trade, that all come together in this city.
"And in attacking this city, they also reminded us that we stand together in our response, and we will not be cowed.
"Because this is London. These are the Houses of Parliaments, that have stood strong for hundreds of years, and have survived the blitz. And if the Nazis, with the most sophisticated organisation of evil that history has ever seen, couldn't destroy the House of Commons with their blitz raids, a lone jihadist in a car with a knife, will not scare us.
"Because in this city, we will stand together, to face terrorism. We will stand together to understand what causes terrorism, and we all stand together in our response to terrorism.
"This city was attacked by a Muslim jihadist terrorist, but it's the same city that has a Muslim mayor.
"Because this is London."
