Ali A. Rizvi

In 2018, Rizvi appeared in Islam and the Future of Tolerance, a documentary based on a conversation between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz. In the documentary, Rizvi shares his personal experiences growing up in a Muslim-majority country.

As of April 2018, The Atheist Muslim has been translated into Indonesian and Dutch, and an Arabic version is underway.

In 2017, Rizvi launched the Secular Jihadists from the Middle East podcast together with ex-Muslims Armin Navabi (Atheist Republic), Faisal Saeed Al Mutar (Global Secular Humanist Movement) and Yasmine Mohammad (Confessions of an Ex-Muslim). In January 2018, the show was renamed Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment, with Rizvi and Navabi as co-hosts, which fans can support through Patreon.

Rizvi is the author of The Atheist Muslim: A Journey From Religion to Reason published by St. Martin's Press in 2016. It is a combination of personal biography and analysis of arguments in favour of rejecting Islam through "reformation; secularism; and, finally, enlightenment." It has been described as "thoughtful, articulate, well documented, logical" by The New York Times, "a treasure of compelling logical arguments and gripping personal stories" and praised for presenting "Rare and intriguing arguments in the debate over Islam." The Globe and Mail described it as "passionate, timely but, ultimately, muddled plea for reform in Islam."

Rizvi was the 2016 winner of the Morris D. Forkosch book award for The Atheist Muslim.

In 2015 Rizvi made a special report for CNN bringing attention to the case of his friend Raif Badawi, a Saudi author and dissident imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on several charges including apostasy.

Rizvi has stated that right-wing populist politicians are correct in challenging "authoritarian, totalitarian ideas that are in the scriptures", although many other people including Muslims themselves have also done that throughout the ages. On the other hand, Rizvi opposes special Muslim profiling, demonisation of Muslims and a ban on Muslim immigration to the West, because that unfairly discriminates and excludes people, including vocal ex-Muslim critics of Islam. He laments the fact that both the regressive left and the far-right make no "distinction between Islam – the ideology; and Muslims – the people." He argued that radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas popularised the term 'Islamophobia' on purpose, to equate bigotry against Muslims with 'completely legitimate criticism of Islam' as a religion, in order to silence the latter.

By 2011 his writing and secular interests were taking precedence so he changed career to medical communications to be able to devote more time to writing.

Rizvi finished medical school at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, then immigrated to Canada as a permanent resident in 1999. He obtained his master of science degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2003, and then studied pathology at the University at Buffalo in upstate New York, United States (2004–2008), after which he returned to Canada.

According to Rizvi, writing his book "would have been unthinkable about 20 years ago", recalling the outcry against Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988 and onwards) and the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (2005–2006), but arguing that criticism of Islam had been largely normalised by the late 2010s.

Ali Amjad Rizvi (born 29 May 1975) is a Pakistani-born Canadian ex-Muslim atheist and secular humanist writer and podcaster who explores the challenges of Muslims who leave their faith. He writes a column for the Huffington Post and co-hosts the Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment podcast together with Armin Navabi.

Rizvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1975 into a "moderate to liberal Muslim family." He spent his early childhood in Libya, later moving to Saudi Arabia where he attended the American International School in Riyadh which he describes as a school exclusively for the children of ex-pat families living in Riyadh, limiting his exposure to Saudi culture and customs. Both his parents were educated in North America, and taught at a Saudi university. Rizvi's family and other expats referred to a square in Riyadh where public beheadings took place as "Chop-chop Square".