Faisal Saeed Al Mutar

Bio

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar was born in Hillah, Iraq, in 1991. He later moved to Baghdad. Al Mutar grew up in a religiously moderate Muslim family in Iraq, though he remained nonreligious throughout his upbringing. With his family encouraging him to think for himself and make up his own mind, he became an atheist at an early age.

Around this time Al Mutar's writings and secular western lifestyle made him a target for threats and attacks by al-Qaeda. He survived three attempted kidnappings. His brother and cousin were also killed by al-Qaeda in sectarian violence there. Al Mutar visited Lebanon and then Malaysia where he founded the Global Secular Humanist Movement in September 2010.

In 2010, Al Mutar founded the Global Secular Humanist Movement (GSHM), "with the mission of addressing the absence of recognition and legal protections for secular humanists." As a result of his activism, Al Mutar received death threats from religious militias such as the Mahdi Army and elements tied to al-Qaeda.

Due to his conflicts with Islamists over his secular humanist identity and the deaths of his brother and cousin in sectarian violence, Al Mutar fled Iraq and received asylum in the U.S. in 2013. After first living for a number of months in Houston, Al Mutar moved to Washington, D.C., where he lives and continues to operate GSHM with the broader aim of using "reason, evidence and scientific methods of inquiry—rather than faith and mysticism—in seeking solutions to human problems." He also serves as a community manager for Movements.org, a platform which "allows activists from closed societies to connect directly with people around the world with skills to help them."

Personal views

Al Mutar describes being an atheist in Iraq "like being the only sober person in a car filled with drunk people, and you're not allowed to drive."

He criticizes those like Noam Chomsky who attribute unrest in the Middle East solely to United States foreign policy.

Al Mutar attributes the rise of al-Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban to Islamism which he says will make terrorism difficult to eradicate by U.S. military force alone. He cites the easy availability of funding as a compounding factor. Al Mutar believes that the Middle East is responsible for enforcing peace in their region. He says the West's inflated sense of moral responsibility, which calls “the racism of lower expectation,” erodes the Middle East's imperative to address its own issues, such as the Syrian refugee crisis.

Al Mutar is a critic of the term "Islamophobia." He says use of the term has been broadened by some on the left to include legitimate criticism of Islam. He differentiates between criticizing ideas and criticizing people. Al Mutar criticizes what he sees as an "unholy alliance" of the regressive left and the Muslim right against the secular or liberal Muslims, which he says applies different moral standards to Muslims.

Al Mutar criticized President Donald Trump's executive order suspending admission of immigrants for putting refugees "in harm's way."

Al Mutar is a columnist for Free Inquiry.

Awards

In 2016 Al Mutar received the gold President's Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama for his volunteer service in the United States and around the world.