MEGYN KELLY (HOST): And our next guest, who was once an extremist, himself, says that's exactly the problem. And that the signs of someone going down the path of an Islamic radical may not be as obvious as you think. Maajid Nawaz is a former Islamic extremist and author of “Radical, My Journey Out Of Islamic Extremism.” Maajid, thank you very much for being here. We would like to think we would know if we worked in the next county -- for the county and we worked next to somebody who is becoming radicalized. But we might not know.
MAAJID NAWAZ: Actually, most times, Megyn, we don't know. That's the sad state of affairs. It's unfortunate. I mean what we just heard from policeman Mike Madden, was nothing short of heart breaking. And those first responders deserve medals. The survivors of this atrocity deserve all of the condolences and respect. But we could never predict this. And one of the reasons, if we look back...We have the evidence to indicate exactly from past terrorist attacks what exactly happens here. If you look at 9/11 attackers, many of their passports were found in strip clubs and bars. If you look at the problems in the Boston marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, you find that it was very difficult to predict that these were becoming Islamic theocrats and terrorists. And if you look at just even to this month, if you look to the Paris attacks, evidence indicates that some of the attackers owned bars and were for all intents and purposes, were fully integrated in French society.
KELLY: So the question is what were people supposed to do? We heard reports from one neighbor, she saw some suspicious behavior. She didn't want to report them because she didn't want to seem like a racial profiler.
NAWAZ: Yeah. And actually, the evidence points to the fact that those who join terrorist organizations would invariably try to conceal any ostensible sign of religious devotion. Precisely so they are not detected. So if we are going to look to profiling, I think that ethnic profiling and profiling for overt signs of religiosity will actually miss the target. As it has done so in this instance, if evidence indicates this was a jihadist attack. I think what we need to start looking at is psychological factors. We need to start looking at ideas that are adopted and behavior. Now those sort of ideas we are familiar with, anyone who starts saying things such as it's a duty, it's incumbent upon Muslims to resurrect a so-called theocratic caliphate. Or somehow is a global war against Islam and Muslims. Or somehow democracy is antithesis to Islam. These are the sorts of ideas that radicals begin to adopt. If they begin speaking in this way, I say to you Megyn, even if they're drinking alcohol and eating pork, but if they are speaking this way, they are a surer sign to radicalization, than overt signs of religiosity which will be concealed by a terrorist.
