The Left's persecution of ex-Muslims

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Misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination against religious minorities, and persecution of apostates are all rampant in Islam and Islamic culture. While its considered fair game to criticize Christianity and Christians regarding these issues (and rightfully so), anyone who speaks up about the same realities in Islam is often labeled by Leftists as a racist and an Islamophobe.

Ben Affleck famously attacked Sam Harris for speaking about these matters on Bill Maher, labeling him as "gross" and "racist". Affleck needs to STFU and stick to what's he's actually qualified to do: making sh!tty movies about why we should murder immigrants on the off-chance they might someday decide to do something bad. He needs to leave discussion of adult subjects to the actual adults.

Nobody receives the brunt of these attacks more ex-Muslims. While I am an ex-Muslim, I personally have the privilege of being the child of a convert and having the freedom to walk away without anyone noticing. But most ex-Muslims are not so lucky. Apostasy from Islam is legally punishable by death in 13 countries. In Muslim majority countries where it is not, apostates often face severe persecutions. In 2014, Egyptian atheist Ahmad Harkan and his pregnant wife Sally were assaulted by a mob. When they reported the incident to the police, the police assaulted them further and arrested them on charges of blasphemy. These events caused Sally to miscarry. This is just one example of the kind of systemic persecution ex-Muslims face in Muslim majority countries. Those who are fortunate enough to live in Western countries still face ostracization and violence from their families and communities. They often find themselves facing threats of violence while having nowhere to go and nobody to turn to for protection. But when these people speak up about their experiences, so-called Progressives often attack them, labeling them as racists, Islamophobes, and bigots. Ex-Muslims activists who speak about these issues often get suspended or banned on social media for “hate speech”. Meanwhile, Muslims are allowed make open and blatant calls for violence and death against ex-Muslims freely. When Ali Dawah made a video in which he openly stated that Apostate Prophet would be executed in a Muslim state and that he is proud of that, YouTube deemed that he did not violate any hate speech rules and was simply engaging in “passionate debate”. Meanwhile, AP and other ex-Muslims have often had their videos taken down and their accounts suspended for speaking up about these very same death threats.

I’ve spoken before about the hypocrisy of progressives. They are always quick to speak passionately about the plights of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ. But they're just as quick to attack and deny the plights of the marginalized groups that don’t fit into their narratives, like the neurodiverse and ex-Muslims. I personally experienced this when I was attacked by feminists who, even after I thoroughly explained that I'm disabled, unemployed, and homeless, persisted that as a "privileged white male" any adversity I faced was my own fault. Because the plights of ex-Muslims are not convenient to their “Religion of Peace” narrative, they want to silence and erase us. Linda Sarsour, a Muslim feminist who regularly labels critics of Islam as Islamophobes, once Tweeted regarding a group of ex-Muslim women activists “I wish I could take their vaginas away.” Some of the women she was speaking of, including Ayan Hersi Ali, are victims of FGM. Sarsour is still held in high esteem by the Left and is considered a leader in the feminist community.

But what do I know? I’m just another bigoted Islamophobe.



Admins - I was not sure if this topic was more appropriate for Politics and Religion or the Haven. I settled on the Haven because the subject of FGM is mentioned. Please feel free to move this if you think that's appropriate.

So long as your criticisms are valid, have evidence to support them, and do not stem from a place of bigotry but actual concern, you are not a bigoted Islamophobe. It is the same with any religion.

Are your referring to the following, or something more recent?

Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), uploaded to YouTube on Oct 6, 2014.


Are you a member of any ex-Muslim organizations, such as Ex-Muslims of North America? If not, I would strongly encourage you to join (as soon as you can afford to do so, if you can't afford this currently), and I would strongly encourage you to encourage other ex-Muslims to join whichever such organization(s) you deem to be the best. Organized efforts are of utmost importance in accomplishing any human-rights goal.


Regarding Muslims, ex-Muslims, and the left here in the U.S.A., there are a few different things going on here:

One problem is the unfortunate reality that legitimate concerns about human rights in Muslim countries have been hijacked by American right wingers as an excuse to try to deny civil rights to Muslims. There are quite a few anti-Muslim panic-mongers who promote fears of "creeping Sharia," oppose immigration by Muslims, and lobby local governments to deny building permits to Muslim groups who want to build mosques. There have also been quite a few anti-Muslim hate crimes. And, for at least a decade after 9/11/2001, there was a tendency by all too many Americans to regard all Muslims with fear as potential terrorists.

Another problem is that the left, here in the U.S.A., is essentially an alliance of marginalized groups -- BUT, in order for some marginalized demographic to be taken seriously as a member in good standing of that alliance, it needs to be organized. Neurodivergent people clearly aren't organized enough yet, and I suspect that the same is true of ex-Muslims.

That's one of the reasons why I would strongly encourage you to join an ex-Muslim organization (if/when you can) and to encourage other ex-Muslims to do likewise.


I've said this before ... our big problem is that we aren't organized, and our very disability makes it hard to organize. But we must.

On a related note, I'm very sorry to hear about your difficulties with your local support group, as you told us here. Leaders of autistic peer support groups need to learn conflict-resolution skills, in my opinion.

EDIT: Looking at the Ex-Muslims of North America site, I see some good news from the Sudan, in July 2020: "The death penalty for apostasy has been abolished in Sudan, announced recently-appointed Minister of Justice this week. The new rule comes alongside many other reforms which are heralded by human rights groups as a generous step forward for the African country." This is very good news! Hopefully there will eventually be similar progress in other Muslim-majority countries.

I would think that ex-Muslims are one of the few people that can lead the way in criticism of Islam, generally in a culture where it is such a minority. As long as it is all good faith and not something being hijacked by people who want to discriminate against people that are different from them. I find it really hard to believe that there is some Left campaign against ex-Muslims, it is not like they are the type of people wanting there to be a travel ban from Muslim majority countries, or creating racist stereotypes of women wearing hijabs, right?

I can only think the times that an ex-Muslim might be talked over is if they were from an extremist sect and were applying that onto all practicing Muslims.

Ex muslim here, like more than 20 years of being so.

There’s a long history of Left-Islam alliance.
The Radical lefts and radical Islam share the same enemies so it’s an alliance of convenience. I view the Lefts as too naive though and will be the first ones to pay the price if radical Islam takes over; like how it happened in Iran.

Even the US’ Left, the Democrats, are much leaner with radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian regime. Something that the Arabs opposing to those always hated those Democrat’s foreign policies.

The French has a name for it btw: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamo-leftism

Ironically, where I live the Communists, whom many of are ex Muslims or ex Christians, are political allies with the most radical islamist group here.

We jokingly call the local communists here “Hezbollah: the vodka department”.

Total idiots.

How would you say that in Arabic?

حزب الله قسم الفودكا؟