About Me

My name is Sohail Ahmed. I am a reformed former radical Islamist who was at one point on the cusp of carrying out violence in his home city, London.

Raised in an extreme and austere form of Islam, I was taught to hate non-Muslims and even other Muslims who happened to follow a different form of Islam. Additionally, having discovered that I was gay at an early age, I turned this hatred inwards towards myself - a fact that ended up fuelling my radicalisation journey.

Eventually, I began to question the beliefs and worldview I had been raised with and self-deradicalised. Several things sparked my deradicalisation, chief among them being the fact that Britain's efforts to help Muslim-majority countries - such as providing disaster relief - contradicted the idea that the 'infidels' were purely evil and 'were out to destroy Islam'.

Additionally, understanding Biological Evolution made me realise that the reality of evolution contradicted my literalist and frankly simplistic form of Islam. This, in turn, forced me to reconsider everything I had been taught, and my extremist beliefs fell one by one as I started studying progressive Islam in depth.

Having then deradicalised, I quickly came to realise the extent and severity of the threat posed by Islamist extremism. Therefore, I decided to dedicate my time and effort to raising awareness of the threat posed by extremism to society more widely.

In addition to raising awareness, I also promote Islamic reform and LGBT rights in Islam and the Muslim community.

I currently work with The Resilience in Unity Trust, an NGO focussed on raising awareness of the impacts of terrorism on individual victims. It also works to raise awareness of the impact extremism has both on those radicalised and, indeed, wider society.

I have appeared on various media outlets, including the BBC, Channel 4, GB News, TalkTV, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. My testimony has also been read out and presented in parliament.​​