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.
AYAAN HIRSI ALIFree speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.
More Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes
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I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance.
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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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I’d love to go and visit the Mosque in Mecca again, just for the sheer beauty of it, not for God – much the way a non-Catholic might go to Vatican City because of the beauty of the buildings and the artifacts.
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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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The more we oblige, the more we self-censor, the more we appease, the bolder the enemy gets.
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The West is duly terrified. But it should not be surprised.
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I call myself a liberal – a classical liberal as in John Stuart Mill.
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The idea that if people are just friendly and demonstrate they want peace, that will be answered with good will – that is really naive.
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We had a world dominated by the Soviet Union on the one hand, and the Americans on the other hand. They called it the Cold War. But it wasn’t cold. I am someone who comes from the third world. In the third world, the cold war wasn’t cold. Millions had been killed. It was a proxy war.
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The mistake that the Bush administration should admit to is not so much that they made the wrong choices. They made the right analysis; they made the right choices. But what they did wrong was the execution of those choices. That was wrong.
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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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In Holland I have seen well-meaning, principled people blinded by multiculturalism, overwhelmed by the imperative to be sensitive and respectful of immigrant culture, while ignoring criminal abuse of women and girls.
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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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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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My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been insufficiently reverent toward Islam.
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