“ 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. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ American liberals today are hesitant to speak out against the denial of rights that is perpetrated in the name of Islam. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ When I look at people talking about intersectionality, what I see is the human being magnifying a biological attribute, and then putting them aside, putting them in a corner as victims of oppression..… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ I'd like Muslims to look at their religion as a set of beliefs that they can appraise critically and pick and choose from. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can't acquire knowledge. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ It is always difficult to make the transition to a modern world. I moved from the world of faith to the world of reason - from the world of excision and forced marriage to the world of secual emancipa… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ 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. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ 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 na… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ Young people, some of whom are not born into the faith, are being fired up by preachers using basic Islamic scripture and mobilized to wage jihad by radical imams who represent themselves as legitimat… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ With the first commandment, Mohammed tried to imprison common sense. And with the second commandment, the beautiful, romantic side of mankind was enslaved. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ 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
“ The morning after the 9/11 attacks...we began talking about the Twin Towers attack. Ruud shook his head sadly about it all. He said, "It's so weird, isn't it, all these people saying this has to do wi… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ The people who believe themselves to be on the left, and who defend the agents of Islam in the name of tolerance and culture, are being rightwing. Not just rightwing. Extreme rightwing. I don't unders… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ Even with protection, even with death threats, I can publish, I can travel and I can live the life that I want and not the one my parents want or some imam somewhere thinks I should live. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ When I assert that Islam is not a religion of peace I do not mean that Islamic belief makes Muslims naturally violent. This is manifestly not the case: there are many millions of peaceful Muslims in t… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ In a well-functioning democracy, the state constitution is considered more important than God's holy book, whichever holy book that may be, and God matters only in your private life. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ I think now that this obsession with identifying racism, which I saw so often among Somalis too, was really a comfort mechanism, to keep people from feeling personally inadequate and to externalize th… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ 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 un… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“ The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, nonpersons. The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the world; it restrains them, confines them, grooms them for docilit… Ayaan Hirsi Ali
