Story highlights Asra Nomani revealed she had voted for Trump in a Washington Post column

She says that Trump is the only candidate who will tackle Islamic extremism

(CNN) Asra Nomani is an immigrant, a Muslim and a life-long liberal. She is also, as she told CNN's Carol Costello Friday, a "silent secret Donald Trump voter."

Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, first made her self-described "confession" in a Washington Post column on Thursday. Since it published, she told Costello, she has received a torrent of abuse on social media. It's a symptom, Nomani insisted, of an increasingly hostile "liberal honor brigade."

"You know, I felt like this entire election year, we have just silenced so many people," Nomani said.

"Even now the idea of speaking out as somebody who voted for Trump is earning me all sorts of lovely labels like 'idiot' and 'f***er' and all these other ideas that I think violate liberal values of free speech and self-determination. So I spoke out because I also believe we have to stand up for the dignity of all people and Trump voters are human beings, too," she insisted.

At the forefront of her reasons for voting Trump, Nomani said, was her fear of what she dubbed the "very real and serious threat by extremist Muslims."

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