I am grateful to my father for sending me to school, and that we moved from Somalia to Kenya, where I learned English. Ayaan Hirsi Ali More Quotes by Ayaan Hirsi Ali More Quotes From Ayaan Hirsi Ali Islam is not a race...Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not 'Islamophobic' to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali islamdemocracyrace In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn't translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse. Ayaan Hirsi Ali diversityignorancereal 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 docility. A mind can be cramped just as a body may be, and a Muslim veil blinkers both your vision and your destiny. It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the domination of a race but of a sex. Ayaan Hirsi Ali destinymensex The more we oblige, the more we self-censor, the more we appease, the bolder the enemy gets. Ayaan Hirsi Ali appeaseselfenemy There is a huge difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance Ayaan Hirsi Ali making-a-differencetolerancedifferences 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 didn't have to beg him for financial support. Ayaan Hirsi Ali supportwifehusband Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice. Ayaan Hirsi Ali intolerancecowardicetolerance I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate. Ayaan Hirsi Ali hateremember It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage. Ayaan Hirsi Ali cagesbarslong 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 understand how you can be so upset about the Christian right and just ignore the Islamic right. I'm talking about equality. Ayaan Hirsi Ali islamicchristianbelieve 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 practicebelievethinking I lived in countries that had no democracy... so I don't find myself in the same luxury as you do. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don't know what it is not to have freedom. Ayaan Hirsi Ali luxurydemocracycountry I love life more than I love death. Ayaan Hirsi Ali love-deathi-love-lifelove-life 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 someone has opened the doors to its cage. Ayaan Hirsi Ali islamdoorsbird By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny. The Prophet Muhammad attempted to legislate every aspect of life. By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden, we Muslims supressed the freedom to think for ourselves and to act as we chose. We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mindset of the Arab desert in the seventh century. We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves. Ayaan Hirsi Ali mindpeoplethinking 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. Ayaan Hirsi Ali abusegirlpeople I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance. Ayaan Hirsi Ali toleranceislampeople Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience. Ayaan Hirsi Ali freedom-of-speechconsciencespeech I cannot emphasize enough how wrongheaded this is. Withholding criticism and ignoring differences are racism in its purest form. Yet these cultural experts fail to notice that, through their anxious avoidance of criticizing non-Western countries, they trap the people who represent these cultures in a state of backwardness. The experts may have the best of intentions, but as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Ayaan Hirsi Ali differencesracismcountry The demand that Islam makes of women is to not attract attention to yourself, and if you are in a secular society, that attire does exactly that, and it is a political symbol, no longer religious. Ayaan Hirsi Ali secular-societypoliticalreligious
