The Bosnian Genocide was something that triggered my consciousness and led to an awakening politically for me.

Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society.

We have to render Islamist extremism as unattractive as communism has become today.

There was a genocide unfolding against Bosnian Muslims and we, in the United Kingdom, were incredibly angered - a teenager at the time, 15 years old, so my young teenage mind processed that in a way typical to the very passionate and angry and black-and-white way that teenagers often can do.

It's not always the case that Muslims have been theocrats.

I can now say that the more I learnt about Islam, the more tolerant I became.

In prison I had the opportunity to debate and discuss people that had subscribed to all forms of Islamism.