Wannabe MP goes to strip club, gets death threats from Isis

A Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate has told how police installed a panic button in his house due to “specific” death threats from Isis, following CCTV footage of his stag night at a strip club going "viral".

Maajid Nawaz is a Muslim and the co-founder of anti-extremism group Quilliam. On Saturday a newspaper published CCTV footage of him having a private lap dance at an east London club last summer.

The article, titled “Caught on camera: Married Lib Dem 'feminist' who is running for Parliament is filmed with stripper in drunken night of temptation” quotes the club’s owner Abdul Malik saying he publicised the video because Nawaz acted like a “spokesman for Islam”.

“He’s always talking about religion on TV and I thought, what a hypocrite,” he said.

In lengthy statement on Facebook, Nawaz, who is standing to be an MP in Hampstead and Kilburn, responded to the article saying that it was part of a "smear campaign" from those who disagreed with his decision to challenge "the Muslim status quo today":

It is no surprise to me that this latest episode of my dehumanisation culminated yesterday in yet another call from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism branch, who warned of new specific ISIS calls for my death after this latest smear campaign went viral.

Yesterday evening and for the first time, counter-terrorism police ordered the installation of a direct panic alarm in my home from fear of a terrorist attack.

Nawaz added that he did not "claim to be a religious role model" and that his then-fiancée Rachel knew he had gone to a strip club for his stag night. "As a liberal, what consenting adults do in private - whether in or out of wedlock - is not for me to judge,” he said.

But he apologised for the footage being published, saying: “I am sorry that though I have every right to behave as I like within the law, many will have seen that footage and wished that I had chosen not to go. I am sorry to Rachel, my son, and my family.”

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