109ties, the serpent of theocracy may be hiding some-
where in the shadows. I worry that if things were
to change, and we had a Muslim- majority govern-
ment, all pretense of tolerance would disappear and
we’d be on a swift ride back to the seventh century.Nawaz Yes, that is a valid fear. My or ga ni za tion has a
track rec ord of being consistent— not just in Britain,
where I was born and raised, but also in Pakistan
and other Muslim- majority countries. We take the
unequivocal view that no place on earth should
seek to impose any given interpretation of religion
over the rest of society.
The taqqiya that you referred to is a Shia con-
cept. It doesn’t apply to 80 percent of the world’s
Muslims, who are Sunni. It’s actually an intrafaith
concept that the Shia developed because they were
being persecuted by Sunnis. And sadly, today in
Pakistan they are being persecuted again. There
is no analogous Sunni doctrine. The only time
Sunnis seek to lie is when they’re at war or under
duress. Besides, every nation uses war propaganda.
But that’s a different discussion.
Harris I suspect that any Sunni jihadist or Islamist
could justify his deception by claiming to be on a
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