The liberal Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, has agreed to pay more than $3-million to an Islamic reformer and his group, after wrongly labeling them "anti-Muslim extremists. The settlement also included a public apology from SPLC president Richard Cohen, for including the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremism group, and its founder, Maajid Nawaz, in its "Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists." Cohen said the group realized the designation was wrong, after doing additional research. "They are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists," Cohen said in a public apology. Nawaz threatened to sue the SPLC for including him on the list, along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalia-born critic of radical Islam and genital-mutilation victim. In a statement, Nawaz said: "We were able to fight back against the Regressive Left and show them that moderate Muslims will not be silenced."
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