The 21st century – and the atheists – needs the presence of religion, just as religion must deal with the real challenges and the thinkers of the day in order to sharpen the conscience and...

The month of Ramadan is the world’s most widespread fast and yet its teachings are minimised, neglected and even betrayed (through literal application of rules that overlooks their ultimate objective).

I want to be an activist professor.

In the name of the rule of law, democracy and human rights, we cannot accept that the rights of individuals (Arab or Muslim) be trampled upon, or that populations are targeted and discriminated against in...

The great majority of Americans do not know much about Islam but nonetheless fear it as violent, expansionist and alien to their society. The problem to overcome is not hatred, but ignorance.

Mental ghettos are not mirages; they actually exist in palpable reality: being “open” inside one’s mental or intellectual ghetto does not open its door but simply allows one to harbour the illusion that there is...

The world is a complex place, and the influence of the media in its representation and its power of communication and interpretation is a remarkable amplifier of emotions, and of illusions.

Violence against embassies and civilians must be categorically condemned. At the same time, we must attempt to understand why such events occur.

Clarity and consistency are not enough: the quest for truth requires humility and effort.

No civilisation can claim to have a monopoly on universal values and no one can claim to be always faithful to his own values.

Being Muslim has become synonymous with pointed questions, with tension and mistrust, even with conflict. It has become a global phenomenon with profound consequences for inter-communal relations, political rhetoric and policies at the local, regional,...

History is replete with ideologies of freedom, justice, liberation of the downtrodden and the exploited, that have been turned against the very people they had mobilised, or that have reproduced the same logic of exclusion...

We can witness collective movements alarmingly influenced by genuine social phobias and affecting the most industrialized and educated societies. Exclusive identities are being asserted, singular affiliations are being stressed, and it is becoming increasingly difficult...

Religious symbols should be visible in public space, in a dignified and non-provocative manner. Christmas trees here, Jewish menorahs there and, further along, a minaret – these symbols represent human life in all its diversity.

Many U.S. organizations believe that I am being barred from the country not because of my actions but because of my ideas. The conclusion seems inescapable.

Instead of looking outside of ourselves and counting potential enemies, fasting summons us to turn our glance inward, and to take the measure of our greatest challenge: the self, the ego, in our own eyes...

Terror will crash down on us if we fail to understand that a pluralistic society requires the personal and daily commitment of every citizen.

Advertising, music, atmospheres, subliminal messages and films can have an impact on our emotional life, and we cannot control it because we are not even conscious of it.

The philosophical connection between the Islamic world and the West is much closer than I thought. Doubt did not begin with Descartes. We have this construction today that the West and Islam are entirely separate...

Intellectual modesty is humility as to what I know; intellectual humility is modesty as to what I do not know

If religious people deny paradise to their opponents or to ‘non-believers,’ atheists would likewise seek to eliminate ‘dangerous’ believers with their ‘childish’ ways and their heads in the clouds.

The ‘army camp’ that coordinates the agencies of our brain is vulnerable, both in itself and from within. In effect, he who can know and master its functioning and psychology from outside can become twice...