Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Infuriatingly stupid analysts - especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of the Islamic world - wrote reams of commentary [after 9/11]. Their articles were all about Islam saving Aristotle and the zero, which medieval Muslim scholars had done more than eight hundred years ago; about Islam being a religion of peace and tolerance, not the slightest bit violent. These were fairy tales, nothing to do with the real world I knew.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Zero, Real, Stupid

  10 Copy quote

• In a sense, my grandmother was living in the Iron Age. There was no system of writing among the nomads. Metal artifacts were rare and precious.... The first time she saw a white person my grandmother was in her thirties: she thought this person's skin had burned off.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Writing, Grandmother, White

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

• You have to let individuals make their own choices and respect that, even if it's your own child. And that's what was taken away from me. My father passed away thinking I still had to go back to his way of believing.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Children, Father, Believe

  8 Copy quote

• It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Life, Perseverance, Rights

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2010). “Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations”, p.161, Simon and Schuster

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Rest Of Life, Church, Spirituality

  "Ayaan Hirsi Ali: 'Why are Muslims so hypersensitive?'". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. May 7, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

• But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can't acquire knowledge.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Doubt, Questioning, Standpoint

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “The Caged Virgin: A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I would like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Argument, Victim, Infidel

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.348, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• There can only be one answer to this hideous act of jihad against the staff of Charlie Hebdo. It is the obligation of the Western media and Western leaders, religious and lay, to protect the most basic rights of freedom of expression, whether in satire on any other form. The West must not appease, it must not be silenced. We must send a united message to the terrorists: Your violence cannot destroy our soul.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Religious, Media, Expression

  "How to Respond to Islamist Kalashnikovs in the Heart of Paris" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 7, 2015.

  15 Copy quote

• I grew up in Somalia, in Saudi Arabia, in Ethiopia, and in Kenya. I came to Europe in 1992, when I was 22, and became a member of Parliament in Holland.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Europe, Arabia, Kenya

  7 Copy quote

• We who don't want radical Islam to spread must compete with the agents of radical Islam. I want to see what would happen if Christians, feminists and Enlightenment thinkers were to start proselytizing in the Muslim community.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Christian, Feminist, Community

  "The Feminist". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.nytimes.com. May 21, 2010.

  7 Copy quote

• European children are educated in a narrative of human tolerance every day, and if you want to be sure to prevent a backlash, you should at least think of bringing Muslim children and teenagers into the fold of that narrative of tolerance.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Children, Teenager, Thinking

  "The Interview: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on reforming Islam". Interview with Brian Bethune, www.macleans.ca. April 13, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

• The idea that if people are just friendly and demonstrate they want peace, that will be answered with good will - that is really naive.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Ideas, People, Friendly

  "Ayaan Hirsi Ali: 'Why are Muslims so hypersensitive?'". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. May 7, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

• Many people in Europe and the U.S. dispute the thesis that we are living through a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west. But a radical minority of Muslims firmly believes that Islam is under siege, and is committed to winning the holy war it has declared against the West.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  War, Believe, Winning

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2010). “Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Home, Judging, Safe

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• 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 Ali

  Mistake, Choices, Execution

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  5 Copy quote

• My conscience is informed by reason. It's like Kant's categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Wish, Reason, Categorical Imperative

  4 Copy quote

• What 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?

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Men, Bullshit, Victory

  4 Copy quote

• ...Bin Laden's quotes from the Quaran resonated in my brain: "When you meet the unbelievers, strike them in the neck." "If you do not go out and fight, God will punish you severely and put others in your place." "Wherever you find the polytheists, kill them, seize them, besiege them, ambush them." "You who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as friends; they are allies only to each other. Anyone who takes them as an ally becomes one of them.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Christian, Believe, Fighting

  4 Copy quote

• They decided to let immigrants in and I am an immigrant. They gave us a chance to participate in this country's life and I took it.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Country, Chance, Immigrants

  5 Copy quote

• I think of Canada, first and foremost, in terms of space. The amount of space available is breathtaking.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Thinking, Space, Canada

  4 Copy quote

• I do not believe in God, angels and the hereafter.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Believe, Angel, Believe In God

  "Secrets and lies that doomed a radical liberal" by Jason Burke, www.theguardian.com. May 20, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

• The liberal psyche wants to protect minorities, to apologize for imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and the appalling treatment of black people during the civil rights movement. At the same time, they want to continue to defend the rights of individuals.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Rights, People, Black

  "Ayaan Hirsi Ali on why Christians should try to convert Muslims". Interview with Kate Fillion, www.macleans.ca. May 21, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• This was not an attack by a mentally deranged, lone-wolf gunman. This was not an 'un-Islamic' attack by a bunch of thugs - the perpetrators could be heard shouting that they were avenging the Prophet Muhammad. Nor was it spontaneous. It was planned to inflict maximum damage, during a staff meeting, with automatic weapons and a getaway plan. It was designed to sow terror, and in that it has worked.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Islamic, Thug, Avenging

  "How to Answer the Paris Terror Attack". Article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.metafilter.com. January 7, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

• Americans have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, religions, and races. It's a spirit of tolerance, now energized and amplified by the cult of multiculturalism.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Race, People, Tolerance

  6 Copy quote

• There is one Islam, unreformed, but three sets of Muslims. Medina, Mecca, and. Dissidents, reformers, whatever you want to call them. The first group are the extremists and fundamentalists, the second the great mass of Muslims who just want to live their lives in peace, and the third are reformers.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Islam, Groups, Three

  "The Interview: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on reforming Islam". Interview with Brian Bethune, www.macleans.ca. April 13, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

Page 3 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin