The combination of sheer shamelessness, defensiveness and bluster that is the facade of Quilliam co-founder Maajid Nawaz has begun to crack, as those unwilling to believe the group’s “research”, which claimed that 83% of grooming gang sexual abuse was attributable to Asian Men, has grown, and now includes one very high profile dissenter.
Nawaz’ meltdown began when Lily Allen Tweeted “Actually that @quilliaminstitute study has just been outed as being utterly useless. They got their nationwide averages from a total of 5 victims or something” in response to someone claiming Nawaz “does a good job of explaining the extent to which certain sexual abuse scandals are disproportionately coming from a certain community”. The Great Man was not at all happy.
His problem was the overbearing, sneering, dismissive response. “Mate, have you read the report? You’re an uninformed outsider using your pop star privilege to reinforce chauvinistic attitudes among conservative members of our community, of which you know little, while betraying vulnerable underage child victims. Ask us, before *telling* us”.
She was doing nothing of the sort. And then blocked Nawaz, who in turn threw out his rattle in no style at all. “Well,that told me I guess. I only ever tweeted her that once,replying to her slander against our research. This shows once again that fragile white leftists love talking on behalf of brown people,until we brown people forget ‘our place’ &get uppety by answering back. Orientalism”. No, it’s the Quilliam “research”. Nawaz is deflecting.
His problems then increased when LBC host Matthew Stadlen advised him “Hi Maajid. I put a series of questions about the Quilliam report to its authors, on your advice, but they refused to answer a single one of them. After more than two weeks, they said that Quilliam stood by the report”. Well, if they wouldn’t discuss it, Dr Ella Cockbain would.
“Hi Matthew, that sounds frustrating. As I’ve said previously, I’m very happy to discuss the report with you & any other journalists interested in its reliability”. This may have contributed to Nawaz then losing it completely with Chas Newkey Burden.
“And you’re a racist. I grew up fighting people like you, but instead of pretending to be Guardianistas, they wore swastikas. The difference is pretence. You hate it that I see through you. Fuck you. Fuck your posh double-barrelled name, fuck your face & fuck your racist arrogance”. Distinguished pundit and think tank head man, eh?
Newkey Burden maintained his cool, and reminded Nawaz “Have screengrabbed this. Would you like to explain your allegation that I’m ‘racist’?” He does like to call “racist” on others, even asserting repeatedly that the Labour Party is “institutionally racist” (wrong).
Did The Great Man stop and think? Sadly not. “You’re now a coward too. You deleted your tweet you fucking piece of trash. Admit to everyone what you posted, instead of pretending that allegation came out of nowhere. You & I both know what you posted, you disgusting fucking racist piece of shit. I am very happy to pursue this”. Distinguished pundit, eh?
Seems those challenging the Quilliam “research” send him all flaky. And there’s good reason for that: if that report falls, something else may happen to Quilliam. And that something, as with so many “think tanks”, is its credibility and fundraising ability.
The desperation and shamelessness of this aspect of Quilliam’s raison d’être was demonstrated when its Twitter feed told “BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: @QuilliamOrg's #WinterGala will be hosted by TV Personality, @IamSairaKhan & Game of Thrones actress @LauraPradelska on Thu Nov 1st. Buy your tickets here” last week, and then Nawaz tried to drum up sales … on the back of the Pittsburgh synagogue murders.
I kid you not: he replied to that very Tweet with the comment “Condolences #PittsburghShooting Terrorist cowards (jihadist, far-left or far-right) all unite on hatred for Jews. Why we at @QuilliamOrg are mobilising our annual gala Nov 1st: Muslims & Jews to stand in #solidarity against anti-semitism & anti-Muslim hate”.
Sorry the synagogue got shot up, says Maaj, so how about you buy some tickets for our bash later next week, because we’re standing up to this kind of thing.
What Maajid Nawaz really is standing up to, apart from the promotion of Himself Personally Now, is unclear. But what is clear is that his “83%” claim is bust, and potentially, the reputation of Quilliam with it. He really is not waving, but drowning.
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