Mohammad Usman Rana

In early 2008, Rana won an essay contest initiated by the newspaper Aftenposten. The idea of the contest is to broadcast voices of young people in Norway. In his winning text, titled "The Secular Extremism" (Norwegian: Den sekulære ekstremismen), Rana argued that religious debaters were driven away from the Norwegian public sphere, due to a perceived degradation of views based on religion. He used the case of then-bishop-elect of Oslo Ole Christian Kvarme as an example, claiming that Kvarme was exposed to the "pillory of modern society" when commentators largely denounced his Conservative Christian views. Rana warned against a perceived intolerance of religious practice, citing France and Turkey as bad examples due to the Islamic dress controversy in those countries and portrayed the US as the remarkable illustration of a moderate secular nation which allows and includes religious expressions.

When one of the cartoons were reprinted in a Norwegian magazine in September 2008, Rana described it as "vulgar", "unnecessary and desperate". "Criticism of Islam is important, but there are other and better ways to do it", Rana commented.

Rana enrolled at the University of Oslo to attend medical school. In 2005 he became the leader of the Norwegian-Pakistani Students' Association (Norsk-pakistansk studentersamfunn). In 2007, Rana became the leader of the Muslim Students' Association at the University of Oslo. He is a columnist for Aftenposten – the largest newspaper in Norway – and is a commentator on Islam, extremism, and secularism.

Rana helped organize humanitarian aid to the victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. He participated in debates on national television and was interviewed by newspapers on issues pertaining to immigration, integration, Islamism, internal strife in Norwegian Muslim groups.

Mohammad Usman Rana (born 3 June 1985) is a Norwegian commentator, columnist and medical doctor, having earned his degree at the University of Oslo.