Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.

Unlike the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth, the umma, or Muslim community, has no symbolic leader, let alone a formal one.

Christians – at least Christians in a liberal democracy – have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state.

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.

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.

Every time I went on TV I got a threat.

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...

I’d like Muslims to look at their religion as a set of beliefs that they can appraise critically and pick and choose from.

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...

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...

I 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...

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...

The concept of God in Jewish orthodoxy is one where you’re having constant quarrels with God. Where I come from, in Islam, the only concept of God is you submit to Him and you obey...

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

Avoiding offense means that we don’t accept each other as equals.

If we don’t take effective measures now, the Netherlands could be torn between two extreme rights.

…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...

I don’t have much in me left for Somalia, because the country is so broken, it’s not realistic to daydream about it.

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.

Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time for bird to escape, even after...

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.

In 1985 as a teenager in Kenya, I was an adamant member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Liberal capitalism is not perfect, but compared to the other ‘isms,’ it’s far superior.

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

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...

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.

It’s wrong to treat Muslims as if they will never find their John Stuart Mill. Christianity and Judaism show people can be very dogmatic and then open up.

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...

When I was in Holland, the idea was, all cultures are equal and all are to be preserved. My idea was, no, all humans are equal, but not all cultures are equal.

What I find daunting always is to stand on a stage and talk to people, whether they agree with me or not.

I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate.

No one in the American Enterprise imposes their beliefs. We clash, and I think that’s what the West is all about.

It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage.

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

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,...