Ex-Muslims of North America

Ex-Muslims of North America (Ex-MNA) is a charity that advocates for acceptance of religious dissent, promotes secular values, and aims to reduce discrimination faced by those who leave Islam.
==History==
Muhammad Syed grew up in Pakistan, and became an ex-Muslim in 2007. He moved to the United states in his early 20s. After one of his Pakistani friends became “ultra-conservative,” Muhammad attempted to discredit his perspective using Islamic texts. After considering these, he decided “that his perspective was actually the Islamic perspective.” This contributed to his deconversion. After Muhammad told his parents that he was an ex-Muslim, they were “traumatised and shocked.”
At one social event, Muhammad met Sarah Haider, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Texas, and left Islam when she was around 16. He was the first other ex-Muslim she had ever met. After meeting each other, Muhammad and Sarah decided to find other ex-Muslims, and built a small, informal network. They then started in-person meeting. Attendees were vetted via phone call. In late 2013, Muhammad and Sarah created Ex-Muslims of North America. In November 2017, it had around 1,000 ex-Muslims in 25 cities in North America.
In June 2014, the organisation led the campaign for Pakistan to cease censoring Twitter content deemed blasphemous. It was one of fourteen organisations that wrote to the .
In October 2014, the organisation was granted status.
===Wegmans dispute===
In June 2016, a Virginia branch of the supermarket chain refused to make a cake celebrating the third anniversary of the organisation, because a worker and supervisor decided that their name was offensive. In response to the incident, Muhammad Syed said "There is nothing about our name or logo that can be considered offensive to any reasonable individual." An attorney from the wrote a letter to Wegman’s, describing the situation as a potential civil rights violation. After corporate found out, the cake order was filled for free, and workers were coached on ways to better handle similar situations.
===Normalizing Dissent Tour===
In August 2017, they introduced the Normalizing Dissent Tour, an effort to bring apostates from Islam to campuses across the United States and Canada. The tour began at the .
===2020-2021===
In 2020, the organisation released its Persecution Tracker, which catalogues incidents of violence, hate, and state punishment directed against ex-Muslims. In 2021, they added country profiles. Also in 2020, they worked with other secular organisations to advocate for the adoption of the 
Blasphemy Resolution, which calls for an end to blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws. At the end of 2020 the joined the in adopting the Resolution.
In 2021, Ex-MNA released the results of their Apostate Report, a quantitative survey to explore ex-Muslims’ lives, beliefs, values, and experiences. Ex-MNA contracted researchers at to help develop a questionnaire. Nearly 600 ex-Muslims participated in the survey. Also in 2021, Ex-MNA participated in a meeting with the , along with other secular groups, organized by the . It was the first meeting of ex-Muslims with the White House.
==Activities==
===Emergency Aid===
Every year, Ex-Muslims of North America establishes a small fund to aid apostates in emergencies, including escaping physically abusive family members, homelessness, forced marriages, and forced relocation to Muslim countries. Whenever possible, aid is given directly to a vendor or creditor to ensure it serves its intended purpose.
===Support Communities===
Since 2013, Ex-Muslims of North America has supported exclusive, underground communities for Ex-Muslims across the US and Canada. These private networks are accessible only to other ex-Muslims who are approved to join, due to safety concerns.
===WikiIslam===
Ex-MNA has owned since December 2015. After taking ownership of the wiki, they “set out on a massive overhaul.” In March 2021, the wiki was relaunched to become “fairer, [and] more academic, yet still skeptical.” In 2021, they made “substantial progress” on reviewing articles, and began translating it into Arabic. They also created mirror sites to restore access in countries where the wiki has been banned.
==References==
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Canadian YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2016