You should check out this guy. He's an ex-Muslim, German-Egyptian, political and religious scholar, etc. and has written tons on Islam. There are a bunch of videos of him on youtube. He said that in the past few decades Islam has become increasingly fascist and is being used as a tool by totalitarian rulers, but, as always, people refuse to see that they are being manipulated. Here's a video he gave at a uni in Germany. This article was posted a week-ish ago that has the names of some ex-Muslim activists whose work you might be interested in.
That's something that really bothers me about the whole Islam debate in western nations. Anyone who criticizes Islam in the slightest is called an "Islamaphobe" yet the west completely ignores all the activists like this guy, Sabeen Mehmud, Raif Badawi, etc. who are being threatened, imprisoned, executed, or assassinated for making some of the same criticisms or trying to fight for free speech and reform their home countries. Are they all Islamaphobes too and racist against themselves? I complain because I feel depressed when I hear news of these people being oppressed and brutalized and I want a better world for them - not because I'm full of hate. People don't deserve to be oppressed and abused like that and that's why I complain.
Islam is being used by authoritarian governments to absolutely destroy human rights and progressive activists - even progressive Muslims - and people are too brainwashed to understand the political motivations and influence in their religion. Even people in the west are completely ignorant about the oppression of activists in Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, etc. How many people in the west who get furious when we criticize religion know any of the names I mentioned or know of any progressive activists in that part of the world? My guess is not many. I thought about starting a list of non-white, non-western, ex-Muslim activists because I think their voices deserve to be heard and I think the debate needs to be reframed. They're risking their safety to try and raise awareness about these issues and the west just totally ignores them because the debate has become so unbelievably toxic.
It's the same deal with far right Christianity in the US. How the hell people can't see they are being manipulated and used by corrupt politicians who don't give a shit about religion is way beyond my comprehension. I don't believe for a second that Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, the Koch brothers, etc. are even religious - it's just a tool for them to push their own shitty agenda on the country and ruin our lives. They would never get power if they admitted their true agenda so instead they manipulate the fanatic lunatics.