Nahla Mahmoud

Nahla Mahmoud (, born 1987/7) human rights activist and spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. She's known for being vocal against religious extremism; advocating free-speech, LGBTQ rights and awareness on climate change. She fled to the United Kingdom in 2010. At university she came across a professor who opposed the Omar al-Bashir regime; he had just been released from jail where he had been tortured for teaching the theory of evolution. This revelation shocked her and made her feel like she did not exist in Sudan as a woman, as a scientist. television interview on Channel 4's 4thought.tv in January 2013 to give her perspective on "What does Sharia law have to offer Britain?". She recounted how she grew up living under Sharia in Sudan, where she was ‘always dealt with as a second-class citizen, always brought up to believe that I am an incomplete human being [who] needed a man as a guard. Mahmoud found it astonishing that Britain, the country she had fled to escape Islamic rule, maintained a similar system of sharia courts, arguing that ‘Everyone should have equal rights and live under one secular law.’ led by Salah Al Bander, director of the Sudan Civic Foundation and a former LibDem councilor in Cambridge City Council, who called Mahmoud a ‘Kafira’ (unbeliever) on a Sudanese Arabic website. He stated that ‘I will not forgive anyone who wants to start a battle against Islam and the beliefs of the people’. The local LibDem leader, Spencer Hagard, who investigated Al Bander, saw no fault in his behaviour and even regarded him more highly than before. Mahmoud filed a complaint with the police but received no protection, and instead got the suggestion to keep quiet about her views.

Ex-Muslim rights

At the Secular Conference 2014, Mahmoud highlighted the aggression from Islamists faced by ex-Muslims, critics of Islam, atheists of all backgrounds, and anti-traditional liberal Muslims, commenting that it was "really scary" that a 2011 Policy Exchange survey found that 34% of British Muslims aged 16 to 24 supported the death penalty for apostasy.