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Mina Ahadi (ZdE) is Secularist of the Year!

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Photo: Evelin Frerk

Mina Ahadi, chairwoman of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, is winner of the £5,000 Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year. She prevailed against her competitors Sam Harris and Michel Onfray.

The Secularist of the Year is awarded annually by the British National Secular Society to individuals or organizations who, in the society's opinion, made outstanding contributions to the cause of secularism.

The directorate of the Giordano Bruno Stiftung, which had supported the founding of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, congratulated Mina Ahadi on this "sensational success": "No one deserves this award more than Mina Ahadi! It takes a great deal of courage to publicly profess to be an ex-Muslim. The mere fact that there are now central councils of ex-Muslims in several countries has lastingly changed the discourse on Islam. The work of Mina and her fellow campaigners is extremely important for a worldwide Islam-critical enlightenment movement. We are very delighted that the National Secular Society seems to think so as well." In a welcoming speech at the ceremony in London, Deschner Prize winner Richard Dawkins also expressed "admiration and gratitude" for the courage of ex-Muslims. He has "long felt that the key to solving the global threat of Islamic terrorism and its oppression could lie in the awakening of women, and Mina Ahadi is a charismatic leader working towards this goal."