Mo Ansar

Mohammed "Mo" Ansar (, born 6 April 1974) is a British-Pakistani political and social commentator.

In 2010, whilst chair of the Hampshire Independent Equality Forum (HIEF) Steering Group, Ansar coordinated the Southampton Flood Relief Campaign for victims of the 2010 Pakistan Floods called What have the Muslims ever done for us?. In October 2013, Ansar gave an interfaith talk entitled Facing Secularism Together for the annual Lovell (Interfaith) Lecture at Winchester Cathedral.

In November 2015, Ansar led the Southampton University Students Union Islamic Society event

Media work and journalism In April 2012, Ansar met then English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson when both men participated in the BBC programme The Big Questions.

In December 2012, Ansar was invited to participate in a discussion with Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner and Giles Fraser for an article in the Christmas Issue guest co-edited by Robin Ince New Statesman.

Criticism On 29 October 2013, as part of the follow-up to the broadcast of the BBC documentary When Tommy Met Mo, Ansar was questioned on the BBC politics programme The Daily Politics about his Twitter debate with Tom Holland over slavery in antiquity, during which he had tweeted "If slaves are treated justly with no oppression whatsoever, who could possibly object, Tom". Douglas Murray accused Ansar of being unwilling "to admit that the Quran appears to permit the taking of sexual slaves".

In May 2014, Ansar was criticised by journalists including radio presenter, Iain Dale, journalist Nick Cohen, journalist Jamie Bartlett and author, Jeremy Duns regarding his views and his conduct.

Social and political views

Ansar considers Ahmadi Muslims as outside the religion of Islam.

Muslim civil rights

In February 2013, Ansar gave a talk to the Islamic Society of the University of York on Islam in Britain and the Muslim Civil Rights Crisis. Ansar opened his talk with the claim that Muslims from Africa had colonised the pre-Columbian Americas: "trading and intermarrying with Iroquois and Algonquin Indians". In his opinion article on "Islamophobia and the Muslim Civil Rights Crisis",