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.
AYAAN HIRSI ALIWhat we are now doing with the victory, and I agree with you if you condemn that and I condemn whole-heartedly the trivial bullshit it is to go after a man who makes a scientific breakthrough and all that we as women — organized women — do is to fret about his shirt?
More Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes
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I don’t have much in me left for Somalia, because the country is so broken, it’s not realistic to daydream about it.
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My first experience in the Netherlands was very pleasant, extremely pleasant. I mean, I got my residence permit, refugee status, within four weeks of arrival. People treated me extremely well.
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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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But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can’t acquire knowledge.
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If such a young nation as the U.S. could make it to superpower status, we could do it as well.
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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.
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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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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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My brother thinks it is very, very bad that I left Islam. My half-sister wants to convert me back; I want to convert her to Western values. My mum is terrified that when I die, and we all go to God, I will be burned.
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In April 2006, a Dutch court ordered that I leave my safe-home that I was renting from the State. The judge concluded that my neighbors had a right to argue that they felt unsafe because of my presence in the building.
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Bear true witness, even if it be against yourselves, your parents or your family.
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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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Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn’t make it easier.
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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 don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘moderate Islam.’ I think it’s better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice.
AYAAN HIRSI ALI