We are stunned (and humbled) by the overwhelming number of help requests we received in 2022. The ability to find safe solutions for so many of the threatened nonbelievers who knocked on our door is a testament to the hard work of our small team of Secular Rescue caseworkers. There is no quit here, not when lives are at stake. It’s not just immigration impediments and xenophobic governments that stand in the way of safe refugee mobility; the larger-scale world issues that affect us all in various ways are also obstacles.

The fierce repression of ex-Muslims and freethinkers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), our primary region of focus, continued unabated in 2022, with global problems wreaking havoc on the ability of threatened atheists to board flights or cross borders for fresh starts in other, more tolerant nations. Also hindering the ability of people to flee to safety were the lingering global pandemic, rampant inflation and food insecurity, a brutal war in Ukraine and its resultant waves of refugees fleeing for safety, and surges in fuel prices, among other emergencies affecting all corners of the globe. When we look back over these tumultuous months, we are emboldened by the knowledge that Secular Rescue was able to bring peace, safety, and hope to so many hunted and hated secular minorities and activists. Our persistence has paid off for dozens in dire straits.

The roads out of danger and oppression are often covered with potholes and fire. For those on the run from hatred, religious zealots, faith-obsessed family members, and Islamists, relocation is the safest path out of one kind of danger—but it is often rife with other perils. Secular Rescue’s mandate is to save lives and to provide aid and guidance at both ends of the trip.

There was also our emergency Afghan Rescue Fund, a supplementary program created in August 2021 when the Taliban rolled through Afghanistan following the departure of Western peacekeeping forces. Since the fall of Kabul, Secular Rescue has been inundated with urgent requests for assistance; we eventually had to disable our online application portal to keep it from crashing. These two life-saving programs, both funded by our generous and caring donors, enabled us to aid more than 180 endangered apostates, atheists, and LGBTQ activists, many of them civil society and human rights leaders. Thanks to your compassion (and donations), we were able to find safe outcomes for dozens of secularists and progressive change-makers who otherwise might not be here today.

The goals of Secular Rescue have not changed. We work hard to save as many lives as we can. At the end of the day, successes are measured in legal justice (from blasphemy and apostasy charges and incarcerations), escapes to religious freedom, and, ultimately, saved lives—even if we have to steer some into temporary danger zones such as Pakistan, India, and Iran (what we often refer to as stepping-stone nations). It can take months, sometimes even years, to make good things happen, but that is our job.

Even though we work with those in oppressive, dangerous places with long-established religious cultures and bear witness to numerous horrors through submitted and corroborated case evidence, we also celebrated quite a bit of good news.

In 2022, Secular Rescue and Afghan Rescue Fund aid, immigration, and legal-aid doles and other related expenditures reached nearly $500,000. We provided assistance to more than 175 endangered atheists and ex-Muslims for food, rent, living and travel expenses, passports and renewals, visas and extensions, document translations, support letters, urgent medical care, flights, COVID-19 tests, mandatory quarantines, legal representation, security guidance, and vital emotional well-being counseling services.

Below is just a short list of some of our successes, with plenty of thanks for the hard work of our case manager, Kat Parker, whose tireless engagement made so many good things happen in dark places. We’re also grateful for fantastic partnerships with numerous other organizations that work by our side, contributing dollars and logistic support that furthers our mission.

• We are very happy to report that “Zee,” an Egyptian journalist, poet, and author, along with his wife and daughter, relocated from relative poverty and danger in a MENA nation to find solace and safety in California, thanks in large part to the diligent work of the excellent people at the Artist Protection Fund in New York;
• Adnan, a Syrian atheist musician, and his family were finally cleared to relocate to Canada and granted permanent resident status, and we’re just so happy for them. We salute the compassionate and determined lawyers at TalentLift Canada, whose determined advocacy and big hearts were instrumental in helping this endangered family find a new home and a fresh start with their music institute;
• Jordanian nonbinary atheist refugee Alshaima, a victim of forced marriage and extreme abuse, finally arrived in Australia in January; this followed a major struggle with Jordanian and Lebanese authorities in which the Australian ambassador to Lebanon, the UN, and Amnesty Australia stepped in to ensure their departure. Alshaima is safe and free and slowly settling into their new life;
• We are supporting a Nigerian atheist-activist in the Netherlands who fled her homeland after the brutal murder of Deborah Samuel in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto state, when she was accused of blasphemy. Secular Rescue provided the activist with transitional living expenses aid when she applied for asylum. She was stuck in unpleasant, overcrowded conditions while her asylum application made its way through the system.

This is merely the tip of an enormous iceberg. Thanks to your generous giving, Secular Rescue will continue the work of saving lives and resettling endangered freethinkers and ex-Muslims into safe nations that will welcome them. 

These processes are complicated, time-consuming, and expensive, but we will press on. We will continue to do all we can to keep hope alive for secular activists being hunted in countries where blasphemy and apostasy are illegal. No one should be imprisoned or executed because of their religious beliefs or nonbelief; as long as governments look the other way or actively seek to prosecute nonreligious activists, we will step up and do our best to protect them.

This is the extremist inhumanity that atheists and freethinkers confront on a regular basis in MENA nations and why our programs are so vital. We will help those we can help, advise those who seek guidance, and do all we can for the sake of saving people from death or prison. We could not do this work without our supporters, and from all of us at Secular Rescue, thank you for caring as much as you do.