Contributors to the Freethinker

Emma Park is a freelance writer. She was editor of the Freethinker from January 2022 to March 2024.

Daniel James Sharp is Editor of the Freethinker and an independent writer who has published in Areo Magazine, Quillette, the Washington Examiner, Free Inquiry, and many other outlets. He also writes on Substack and is currently working on a book about Christopher Hitchens for Pitchstone Publishing.

Paul Fitzgerald, a.k.a. Polyp, is a radical cartoonist. He is the author of 'Paine: A Fantastical Visual Biography' (2022), a graphic novel about Thomas Paine.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a political journalist and a correspondent for The Diplomat.

Bob Forder is the National Secular Society's historian, a bookseller, freethought book collector, and former history teacher. He is also a board member of Secular Society Limited, which (via GW Foote & Co) publishes the Freethinker.

Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator based in the UK. She writes for different publications, focusing on human rights, mainly women’s rights, as well as minorities and extremism.

Noel Yaxley is a freelance writer from England. He writes regularly for a number of publications, including The Spectator, City Journal, The Critic, Quillette, Spiked and Areo magazine.

Mohammed Jones (a pseudonym) is the author of the Jesus and Mo cartoons.

Jalal Tagreeb is a freelance researcher and translator from the Levant who specialises in Islamic Studies and History. With a background in conservative Sunni Islam, Jalal was once a passionate Muslim apologist who engaged in debates with secularists. However, a transformative journey led him to reassess his beliefs, ultimately prompting his departure from Islam. Now, as an ex-Muslim, Jalal is dedicated to fostering understanding between different belief systems and cultures, with a particular focus on exploring the cultural disparities between the West and the Middle East. Through his research and translations, he seeks to bridge divides and promote dialogue, advocating for intellectual honesty and mutual respect. His Reddit account contains his exchanges and more information on his intellectual journey away from Islam: https://www.reddit.com/user/JalalTagreeb/.

Stephen Evans is CEO of the National Secular Society.

Tehreem Azeem is a freelance journalist and communication strategist. She is reading for a PhD in Communication Studies at the Communication University of China.

Zwan Mahmod writes about history, current affairs and politics. He has been published in the Fabian Society Review, DiEM25, and Ceasefire Magazine. He also writes a Substack newsletter, Zwan's Review, about a range of topics including foreign policy, economic democracy, and free speech.

Ralph Leonard is a British-Nigerian writer based in England. His work has appeared in UnHerd, Sublation Magazine, Areo Magazine, Quillette and elsewhere.

Megan Manson is head of campaigns at the National Secular Society.

Modus Tollens is the Freethinker's correspondent for Diversity, Respect and Social Cohesion.

Keith Porteous Wood led the National Secular Society’s campaign for secularism nationally and internationally as CEO from 1996 to 2017. Since then he has been NSS President. He also leads the Society’s work, including at the UN, combatting the clerical abuse of minors.

Dr Charlie Lynch is a research associate in history at Ulster University, Belfast. He is co-author, with Professors Callum Brown and David Nash, of 'The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain' (Bloomsbury, 2023).

Niko Alm is an Austrian media entrepreneur. He used to publish VICE (Austria and Switzerland) and co-founded Addendum, a platform for investigative journalism. He is a founding member of the Austrian liberal political party NEOS, and was a Member of Parliament from 2013 to 2017. He is the author of ‘Ohne Bekenntnis’ (‘Faithless’), a 2019 book on secularism.

Kevin Yuill is emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland. He is also CEO of Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (HAASE) and author of the book 'Assisted Suicide: the Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization'.

Paul Cliteur is emeritus professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University. He was also a professor of Philosophy at the University of Delft and visiting professor at Hastings College of the Law, University of California. He is the author of 'The Secular Outlook' (2010) and 'Theoterrorism versus Freedom of Speech' (2019), and he edited 'The Fall and Rise of Blasphemy Law' (2016).

Richard Scorer is a lawyer who represents victims and survivors of abuse. He is the author of ‘Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the Sex Abuse Crisis', and a vice president of the National Secular Society.

Leo Igwe is a board member of Humanists International UK and the Humanist Association of Nigeria. He is an independent scholar with a doctoral degree in religious studies from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. He wrote his doctoral thesis on witchcraft accusations in northern Ghana and has research interests in witchcraft, atheism and non-religion, and transhumanism in Africa.

Russell Sandberg is Professor of Law at Cardiff University. His research interrogates the interaction between law and the humanities with particular reference to legal history and the legal regulation of religion and belief.

Suyum Audu is an independent thinker and researcher in the humanities. He is the Founder of A&B Society: Centre for Creative Dialogue and Critical Inquiry in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

Nathan G. Alexander is the author of Race in a Godless World: Atheism, Race, and Civilization, 1850-1914 and the co-host of the Beyond Atheism podcast. He holds a PhD in modern history from the University of St Andrews.

Nicholas E. Meyer is the author of the forthcoming book 'Beyond the Gods—Facing life’s biggest questions, like the meaning of existence, without any supernatural support'. His previous non-fiction books include a history of world cinema and a biographical dictionary. A writer and journalist from Argentina, his articles and columns have been published in seven countries on five continents. He has also written a novel on Irish immigrant pioneers in Patagonia and a travel book on globetrotting to back-of-beyond places like Samarkand and Timbuktu; both unpublished. At one time or another he has been a screenwriter, schoolteacher, policeman (as an alternative to military conscription), travelling salesman, United Nations information officer, magazine editor, newspaper night editor, humour columnist, cartoonist, book and film critic, translator, and lecturer. In the field of linguistics, the following is a link to an article of his on a curiously unreported oddity of the English language, published in the journal 'Verbatim': http://www.verbatimmag.com/29_3.pdf (p. 8).

Adam Wakeling is an Australian author and historian. His most recent book is 'Why the Enlightenment Matters: The Shift in Our Thinking that Made the Modern World'.

Charles Foster is a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, the author of many books including the New York Times Bestseller 'Being a Beast' (2016) (which won the Ig Nobel Prize for Biology), 'Being a Human' (2021), 'The Screaming Sky' (2021), 'A Little Brown Sea' (2022), and 'Cry of the Wild' (Penguin, 2024), and a regular contributor to many publications, including the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. A full list of his publications can be found on his website.

Dr Tony Howe is Reader in English Literature and Director of Graduate Research in the School of English at Birmingham City University. His research centres on the poetry of the English Romantic period. He is co-editor of 'The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley' (2012).

Rahman Toone (a pseudonym) is a writer and futurist. His day job is in the technology sector.

Matt Johnson is a writer. His work has been published in Haaretz, The Bulwark, Persuasion, The Daily Beast, Quillette, American Purpose, and elsewhere. He is the author of How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment (Pitchstone Publishing, 28 February 2023).

Charles Freeman is an English historian specialising in the history of ancient Greece and Rome. He is the author of numerous books on the ancient world including 'The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason'. His most recent book is 'The Children of Athena: Greek Writers and Thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150 BC - AD 400'. He has taught courses on ancient history in Cambridge's Adult Education program and is a Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides. He also leads cultural study tours to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Jack Rivington is the Campaigns Officer for the National Secular Society. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a Masters degree in Philosophy and has a particular interest in linguistics and epistemology. He is a keen sailor and spends most of his spare time writing and producing music.

Nigel Sinnott was the editor of the Freethinker from 1971–72. He has been a member of the National Secular Society since 1963, and is a life member of the Rationalist Association and the Conway Hall Ethical Society. Since 1976 he has lived in Victoria, Australia, where he has an extensive collection of freethought books.

Dr Daryl Leeworthy is a historian and biographer. He is the author of several books, including 'Labour Country' (2018); 'Elaine Morgan: A Life Behind The Screen' (2020); and 'Fury of Past Time: A Life of Gwyn Thomas' (2022).

Amrita Ghosh is an author based in India who investigate the topics of secularism and freethought. She has a degree in English Writing. Enthusiastic about advancing reason and secularism, Amrita contributes to various websites and magazines. In her leisure time, she enjoys taking part in open-minded philosophical discussions with like-minded people.

Frances M. Lynch is a singer and composer. She is artistic director of the contemporary music theatre ensemble, Electric Voice Theatre.

Siniša Prijić is a RE teacher in London and a developer of the KS4 and KS5 Exploring Secularism resource published by the National Secular Society. Originally from Croatia, he has been living and working in London since 2017.

Jack Stacey writes on culture and society, with an interest in secularism and free speech. His work has appeared in The Critic, The Mallard, Areo Magazine, and elsewhere.

Kevin Yam used to be a Hong Kong lawyer and democracy activist. He now lives in Melbourne, and is a Senior Fellow of Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law, as well as an Editor-at-Large of Mekong Review, an Asian literary publication.

Rastine Mortad ('truthful apostate') and Sadaf Sepiddasht are the noms de guerre of an Iranian couple living in Tehran. They have been actively involved in the long struggle against the Islamic regime. They write pseudonymously so as to be able to sustain their underground activities against the state, and because of the dangers that would ensue if they used their real names. Both of them studied in North America, and regularly travel back there.

Andrew L. Seidel is the Vice President of Strategic Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an author, and an attorney who has defended the separation of church and state for more than a decade. He has written books about Christian nationalism and religious freedom, and organised and contributed to the groundbreaking report, 'Christian Nationalism at the January 6, 2021, Insurrection'.

Frank Cranmer is an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s Centre for Law and Religion and a Fellow of St Chad’s College, Durham. He blogs with David Pocklington at Law and Religion UK. He is a Quaker.

Michel Petheram is a writer and translator who taught for many years for the Open University. He has written articles and book reviews on philosophy and published books on media ethics and JS Mill.

Jacques Berlinerblau is a professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He has written many scholarly books and articles on secularism, including 'How to be Secular' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and the recently released 'Secularism: The Basics' (Routledge).

Ray Argyle was a Canadian writer and author of 'Inventing Secularism: The Radical Life of George Jacob Holyoake'. He died in June 2022.

Andrew Whitehead is a former BBC correspondent, an honorary professor at Nottingham University and the biographer of Freda Bedi. He is a member of the National Secular Society.

Frank Haviland is the Editor of The New Conservative, and the author of 'Banalysis: The Lie Destroying the West'. He writes The Frank Report on Substack: https://frankhaviland.substack.com/.

Sonia Nigar is a freelance content writer and feminist activist. She writes about women and the culture in a way to bring positive change. She can be contacted via sonia.nigar273@gmail.com.

Christoph De Spiegeleer is a Research Fellow at Liberas, a heritage and research centre for the history of the liberal movement and the freedom ideal in Belgium. He studied History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Leiden University. He obtained his PhD in modern history at the VUB.

David Nash is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University. He has published widely on the history of atheism and freethought as well as on blasphemy. He has given advice to the EU, the United Nations and the Irish government.

Richard Pallardy is a science writer based in Chicago.

Ayaz Brohi is a broadcast journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan. He covers religious minorities in Pakistan, climate change, and judicial issues in the city.

Gerfried Ambrosch is a heterodox writer and author with a PhD in English and American Studies/Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Graz. He has intimate knowledge of radical social and political movements. His book 'The Poetry of Punk: The Meaning behind Punk Rock and Hardcore Lyrics', was published by Routledge in 2018.

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was an Anglo-American journalist. He wrote numerous books, including studies of Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. His 2007 book 'god Is Not Great' was a National Book Award nominee and his memoir 'Hitch-22' was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He was awarded an Orwell Prize Memorial in 2012. Bio photo credit: Ari Armstrong. Photo used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode.en).

James Lin Shan Hon is a writer, activist and former teacher from Hong Kong. He was previously chairman of its Council on Professional Conduct in Education, as well as one of the directors of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union and founder of various NGOs, all of which were disbanded. He was twice arrested by the HK police but then discharged 'pending further investigation'; all his professional websites were deleted. Since 2018, he has divided his time between the UK, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Derk Venema teaches law at the Open University of the Netherlands. He previously taught jurisprudence at Radboud University Nijmegen. He has published on law and war, transitional justice, legal ethics, Pastafarianism, and legal philosophy. He is not a Pastafari, although he fears the Flying Spaghetti Monster might not agree.

Azad is the pen name of an anonymous Pakistani writer.

Grayson Slover is a freelance writer and the author of 'Middle Country: An American Student Visits China’s Uyghur Prison-State'. Most recently, he was a Policy Analyst at the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), and the Managing Editor at FAIR Substack.

Stephen Law is Director of the CertHE and Director of Studies in Philosophy at the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford. He researches in philosophy of mind, religion, language and metaphysics, and has published many popular introductions to philosophy, including 'The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking'.

Jean-Luc Romero-Michel is a deputy mayor of Paris with responsibility for human rights, integration, and countering discrimination, and Honorary President of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity.

Peter Tatchell is Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights organisation. His documentary, 'Hating Peter Tatchell', is streaming on Netflix.

Edward Royle is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of York, and a leading historian of secularism, freethought and nonconformism.

Hank Pellissier is the founder and programme director of the Humanist Mutual Aid Network. He launched the world's first atheist film festival in San Francisco in 2009, and the world's first atheist orphanage in 2015.

Nath Jnan (a pseudonym) has been working as a secondary school teacher in England for ten years. He has asked not to be named because of threats and reprisals that have been experienced by teachers who have crossed some parts of the Islamic community.

Damian Counsell is the Freethinker's Webmaster. Please direct technical enquiries to him on 07967 026293.

Piers Benn lectures in philosophical ethics at Fordham University London and the Margaret Beaufort Institute, Cambridge. He is the author of Intellectual Freedom and the Culture Wars (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).

Madeleine Goodall is the Humanist Heritage Coordinator for Humanists UK. Since 2019 she has been researching the history and influence of humanism, atheism, and freethought in the UK to mark 125 years of Humanists UK. The major output of this project has been the Humanist Heritage website.

Brian Victoria is a native of Omaha, Nebraska. He holds an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Sōtō Zen sect-affiliated Komazawa University in Tokyo and a PhD from the Department of Religious Studies at Temple University. He has taught Japanese Studies at various universities across the US, New Zealand, and Australia. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Brian’s major writings include ‘Zen Terror in Prewar Japan: Portrait of an Assassin’, a second, enlarged edition of ‘Zen At War’, ‘Zen War Stories’, and an autobiographical work in Japanese entitled ‘Gaijin de ari, Zen bozu de ari’ (‘As a Foreigner, As a Zen Priest’). In addition, Brian has published numerous journal articles, focusing on the historical relationship of not only Buddhism but religion in general to violence and warfare. Some of his articles may be found on The Zen Site here: http://www.thezensite.com/MainPages/critical_zen.html. Brian currently lives in Kyoto, Japan where he continues his research as a non-resident Senior Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. He is a citizen of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. He is also a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.

Hein Htet Kyaw is a working-class activist who is actively struggling against the state sponsored blasphemy laws and intersectional oppressions in Burma. Hein was born in Burma to a mixed religious (Buddhism & Muslim) and mixed ethnic (Shan, Kachin, Burmese, and Bengali) family. He was raised as a Muslim by his father and raised secretly as a Buddhist by his mother. He is deeply involved in Burmese Buddhist religious reformist movements and Burmese Islamic reformist movements. He has initiated several direct action projects against state sponsored blasphemy laws in Burma. Hein considers himself a political atheist, whose position is one of secularism and preventing religious privilege from dominating shared public spaces (laws, government, schools, and institutions). He takes an interest in human rights, social justice, labour rights, and secularism. Hein is currently a spokesperson of Burmese Atheists.

Tauya Chinama is a Zimbabwean humanist, apatheist, human rights activist, and a part-time intern ethics lecturer at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe.

John Mac Ghlionn has a doctorate in psychosocial studies and is a regular contributor to Newsweek and The NY Post.

Porcus Sapiens is an occasional columnist at the Freethinker and a quirk of evolution.

Eliza Mondegreen is a graduate student in psychiatry. She researches gender identity, with a focus on online trans communities.

Dr Carolin Kosuch is a historian at the University of Göttingen, Germany. She is currently researching and publishing on secularist approaches to death in the 18th-21st centuries.

Helen Dale is Senior Writer at Law & Liberty. She won the Miles Franklin Award for her first novel, 'The Hand that Signed the Paper'. Her most recent novel, 'Kingdom of the Wicked', was shortlisted for the Prometheus Prize for science fiction. She writes for various outlets, including The Spectator, The Australian, and Quillette. She lives in London.

Neil Barber is the Communications Officer for the Edinburgh Secular Society and sometimes represents the National Secular Society as a spokesperson for Scotland. In this capacity he contributes regularly to the press and radio and television debates and was part of the Scottish Government’s consultation on the controversial Hate Crime Bill. He is a philosophy graduate from Edinburgh University, a professional songwriter, children’s music tutor, and voice-over artist.

John Richards is President of Atheism UK.

A.C. Grayling is a philosopher, author, Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.

Helen Pluckrose is a liberal humanist and a cultural and political writer. She is the author of 'Cynical Theories', 'Social (In)justice', 'The Counterweight Handbook', and the forthcoming 'Reformers, Revolutionaries and Reactionaries: Has Liberalism Failed or Are We Failing to be Liberal?'. She was editor-in-chief of Areo Magazine 2017-2021.

Tony Akkermans was born in the Netherlands at the very start of the Second World War and was raised a Roman Catholic. At age 16 he realised that religious faith is essentially a childish attempt at explaining the reality of life on earth. He dropped his faith and turned to humanism. He was educated in the sciences and economics and, after his national service, he spent time in England to learn the language. He then worked in international trade and commerce in three different countries, spending the final years of his career as head of commerce at the Netherlands-British Chamber of Commerce. On his retirement he settled in Shropshire with his headteacher partner Shona and for seven years was chair of the Welsh Marches Humanist Group. In 2014 he published an autobiography 'Happily Godless - Humanism for a Better World'.

Jonathan Church, a contributing editor at Merion West, is also an economist and author. He is author of 'Reinventing Racism: Why “White Fragility” Is the Wrong Way to Think about Racial Inequality', as well as 'Virtue in an Age of Identity Politics: A Stoic Approach to Social Justice'. He hosts the podcast 'Escaping Ideology with Jonathan Church' at Merion West.

Rachel Laser is the President and CEO at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and a lawyer, advocate and strategist. As senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, she founded and ran the Pharmacy Refusal Project, which challenged pharmacists who were refusing to fill women’s birth control prescriptions in the name of religion. She is the author of 'Uncovering White Privilege: A Primer'.

Mathew Giagnorio is a writer and researcher. He is the creator and host of the podcast 'Modes of Inquiry' and the founder of the Substack publication 'A Further Inquiry'. His areas of interest include illiberal social and political movements internationally, the incoherent narratives of the modern Left, topics pertaining to national security and counterterrorism, and the present resurgence of antisemitism.

Sid Lukkassen (PhD) is a Dutch philosopher, historian, author, and filmmaker. He writes to connect people and his motto is: 'clarity is the ultimate sophistication.'

Hina Husain is a Pakistani-Canadian freelance writer based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Spectator, UnHerd and the CBC.

Nick Cohen is a journalist who has worked for many publications and was a columnist at the Observer. He is the the author of 'What's Left?' and 'You Can't Read This Book'. He lives in London.

Dr Alejandro Sanchez is a Campaigns Officer at the National Secular Society. He previously worked as an NHS doctor and has an MA in Medical Ethics and Law from King’s College London.

Eoin Carter is a doctoral researcher in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge, where he is completing a PhD on Richard Carlile and other pioneers of the British freethought movement. He is a Council member of the National Secular Society.

Simon Cheng is a British pro-democracy activist, human rights advocate, and exile from Hong Kong. He studied political science at National Taiwan University and the London School of Economics, and worked in trade and investment at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong. Due to his pro-democracy stance, he was detained by the Chinese authorities, hunted by the security police, and stigmatised by the state media. He is the founder and chairperson of Hongkongers in Britain, a non-profit expatriate organisation.

David McGrogan is Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School. His research looks critically at international human rights law, with particular reference to how it serves to buttress the power of the state.

Mienke de Wilde is a Dutch law student, playful opinion-maker and Pastafarian. In 2016 she applied for a driver's licence with a pasta strainer on her head, which was denied. This resulted in the first decision at the European Court of Human Rights about Pastafarianism.

Clare Stainthorp is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. Her current research focuses on the nineteenth-century freethought movement. Her book, 'Constance Naden: Scientist, Philosopher, Poet', was published by Peter Lang in 2019.

Sadaf Sepiddasht and Rastine Mortad are the noms de guerre of an Iranian couple living in Tehran. They have been actively involved in the long struggle against the Islamic regime. They write pseudonymously so as to be able to sustain their underground activities against the state, and because of the dangers that would ensue if they used their real names. Both of them studied in North America, and regularly travel back there.

Puja Bhattacharjee is an independent journalist based in Kolkata, India. She writes about health, science, policy, social justice, LGBTQ issues, art and culture.

Ella Nixon is an art historian based in Cambridge. Her research concerns the transformative power of art, freedom of expression, twentieth-century female artists, and the role of the regional art gallery.

Shaukat Korai is an investigative journalist and political reporter originally from Sindh and now based in Karachi, Pakistan. He focuses on human rights, religious minorities, and climate change.

Julius Weinberg is a British academic and a Trustee of Ormiston Academies Trust. He was formerly an NHS consultant, Vice Chancellor of Kingston University and Chair of Ofsted. He is a Council member of the National Secular Society.