We cannot hope to effectively counter extremism if we just focus on schools, universities and prisons: we need to take this online as well.
By the age of 24, I found myself convicted in prison in Egypt, being blacklisted from three countries in the world for attempting to overthrow their governments, being subjected to torture in Egyptian jails, and sentenced to five years as a prisoner of conscience.
In Bosnia, the case was there were white, blond-haired, blue-eyed Muslims who were being slaughtered and identified as Muslims. That really touched me.
My identity comprises of more than just my faith. I am a proud Muslim, but I am also a liberal, a Briton, a Pakistani, a Londoner, a father, a product of the globalised world who speaks English, Arabic and Urdu.
Preying on the grievances of disaffected young men is the bedrock of Islamism.
Academic institutions in Britain have been infiltrated for years by dangerous theocratic fantasists. I should know: I was one of them.
What we cannot deny is that there's an association between exclusion, segregation, non-violent extremist thinking, and jihadism.
One of the problems we're facing is, in my view, that there are no globalized, youth-led, grassroots social movements advocating for democratic culture across Muslim-majority societies.
The only certainty we have is that those who are certain of a way to arrive at worldly salvation, are committed enough to organize around this, and seek power to enforce it, will invariably descend into a bloody totalitarian fascism.
The truth is, 'Charlie Hebdo' is not a racist magazine. Rather, it is a campaigning anti-racist left-wing magazine.
The Islamist ideology took decades to incubate within our communities, and it will take decades to debunk.
America did not invade Iraq because Iraqis are Muslims. Oil, money, economic interests. Who knows? But it was not because Iraqis are Muslims.
The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.
As people's opportunities to succumb to confirmation bias increases online - only seeking out information that confirms their prejudices - ignorance, extremism and close-mindedness have continued to rise unabated.
There are members - very, very close and dear members - of my family - I'm talking immediate family - who simply don't speak to me anymore and haven't done so for years. My marriage fell apart.
Language that is designed to dehumanize has consequences.
I come from an immigrant family, but I know no other nationality apart from British.
Chance explorations on search engines do not 'accidentally' lead users to extremist websites.
I can now say that the more I learnt about Islam, the more tolerant I became.
After much soul searching I was able to renounce my past Islamist ideology, challenging everything I was once prepared to die for.
