Avoiding offense means that we don’t accept each other as equals.
AYAAN HIRSI ALII think of Canada, first and foremost, in terms of space. The amount of space available is breathtaking.
More Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes
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I assume the closest members of my family don’t actually want to kill me, but the truth is that I have shamed and hurt them; they have to deal with the outrage that my public statements cause, and undoubtedly some members of my clan do want to kill me for that.
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I am grateful to my father for sending me to school, and that we moved from Somalia to Kenya, where I learned English.
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When I was with the Labor Party, I’d get into trouble because the party bosses determined that some of what I wrote, or proposed to write about, wasn’t conducive to their policies or to electoral success.
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There are some mosques with facilities for women; it’s usually a back room with a back-door entrance.
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As soon as something like Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’ appears with a Muhammad figure as the main lead, directed by an Arabic Theo van Gogh, the controversial late Dutch filmmaker, we will have taken an enormous step forward.
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Every time you take a train, step into your car, walk into the shopping mall, go to the airport – every single time, something could happen. That’s how terrorism works.
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I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance.
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I see no difference between Islam and Islamism. Islam is defined as submission to the will of Allah, as it is described in the Koran. Islamism is just Islam in its most pure form.
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Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.
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I confront the European elite’s self-image as tolerant ‘while under their noses women are living like slaves.
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The West is duly terrified. But it should not be surprised.
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Islam is not a race. Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not ‘Islamophobic’ to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy.
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You’ll be pleased to hear, Christopher, that I am no longer a Muslim liberal but an atheist, I find that it obviates the necessity for any cognitive dissonance.
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After the horrific massacre Wednesday at the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, perhaps the West will finally put away its legion of useless tropes trying to deny the relationship between violence and radical Islam.
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I have had to pay a price for leaving Islam and for speaking out. I have to pay for round-the-clock security because of the death threats against me.
AYAAN HIRSI ALI






