Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn’t make it easier.
AYAAN HIRSI ALII 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.
More Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes
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I think of Canada, first and foremost, in terms of space. The amount of space available is breathtaking.
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Let us recognize that we can no longer tolerate violent oppression of women in the name of religion and culture any more than we would tolerate violent oppression espoused by any other bully in the name of a twisted rationale.
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Drinking wine and wearing trousers were nothing compared to reading the history of ideas.
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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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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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I come from a world where the word ‘trauma’ doesn’t exist, because we are too poor. I didn’t have an easy life compared to the average European. But compared to the average African, it wasn’t all that bad.
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As a woman you are better off in life earning your own money. You couldn’t prevent your husband from leaving you or taking another wife, but you could have some of your dignity if you didn’t have to beg him for financial support.
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There is a huge difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance.
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My conscience is informed by reason. It’s like Kant’s categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.
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We have to start with the little babies who are born now, socialize them in freedom and critical thinking. We don’t have to throw away their faith. People confuse the two, thinking if you are enlightened that means apostasy. It doesn’t.
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I talk about a Christianity that is enlightened enough to separate spirituality from the rest of life. Not just church and state, but knowledge and church.
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I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate.
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I’d like Muslims to look at their religion as a set of beliefs that they can appraise critically and pick and choose from.
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I do not believe in God, angels and the hereafter.
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We must reclaim and retake feminism from our fellow idiotic women.
AYAAN HIRSI ALI