Maryam Namazie

Maryam Namazie is a political activist, campaigner and blogger

Tag: Muslims

  • We need to stop conflating ‘Muslims’ with Islamists

    Here is my piece for this month’s The Freethinker: It’s insidious how the Islamist narrative has become mainstream everywhere – in the media, in social policies, in discussions around minority communities and human rights, in ‘progressive’ politics … it’s also very much part and parcel of how some freethinkers view ‘Muslims’ – homogenised masses whose…

  • Confronting Islamism with Secularism, Free Expression and Citizenship Rights

    The below is my speech prepared for European Parliament meeting on 23 February 2016. Today, I would like to focus on the importance of defending secularism, universalism, free expression, and citizenship rights in confronting Islamism. To begin with, let me clarify the distinctions between Islam (an idea), Muslims (people) and Islamism (the religious-Right). The three…

  • Apostasy, Blasphemy and Free Expression in the Age of ISIS

    Below is my speech “Apostasy, Blasphemy and Free Expression in the Age of ISIS,” which I gave at Warwick University on 28 October 2015. I had been initially barred by the Student Union but the talk went ahead after protests. I gave a similar speech a week earlier at Trinity College Dublin, after my talk…