Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes

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• 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

  Race, Islam, Democracy

  CBC News Interview, July 11, 2007.

  74 Copy quote

• Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Tolerance, Cowardice, Intolerance

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

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Hate, Remember

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• 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

  Sex, Destiny, Men

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2011). “Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• The more we oblige, the more we self-censor, the more we appease, the bolder the enemy gets.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Self, Enemy, Appease

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

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• There is a huge difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Differences, Tolerance, Making A Difference

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• 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

  Country, Luxury, Democracy

  51 Copy quote

• Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Freedom Of Speech, Liberty, Free Speech

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2011). “Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations”, p.215, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Real, Ignorance, Diversity

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2011). “Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations”, p.213, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Thinking, People, Mind

  "Infidel: My Life". Book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 2007.

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• 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

  Doors, Bird, Islam

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.382, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Christian, Believe, Islamic

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

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

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Long, Bars, Cages

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.326, Simon and Schuster

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• Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Freedom Of Speech, Speech, Conscience

  Speech on Freedom of Expression at the European Parliament, February 14, 2008.

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• 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

  Husband, Wife, Support

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.144, Simon and Schuster

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• I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  People, Tolerance, Islam

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.307, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Girl, People, Abuse

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• 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

  Country, Differences, Racism

  "Excerpt: 'The Caged Virgin'", www.npr.org. May 4, 2006.

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• I love life more than I love death.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Love Life, I Love Life, Love Death

  "'Kelly File' special: Defying the Sword". "The Kelly File," May 24, 2015, www.foxnews.com. May 26, 2015.

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• I believe that the dysfunctional Muslim family constitutes a real threat to the very fabric of western life. It is in the family that children are groomed to practise, promote and pass on the norms of their parents' culture.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Children, Real, Believe

  "Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations". Book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.theguardian.com. May 13, 2010.

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• 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 name of a twisted rationale.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Names, Bully, Culture

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• Most unmarried Somali girls who got pregnant committed suicide. I knew of one girl in Mogadishu who poured a can of gasoline over herself in the living room, with everyone there, and burned herself alive. Of course, if she hadn't done this, her father and brothers would probably have killed her anyway.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Girl, Suicide, Brother

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

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• We must reclaim and retake feminism from our fellow idiotic women.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Feminism, Idiotic, Fellows

  "Hirsi Ali slams feminism's 'trivial BS'" by Ashe Schow, www.washingtonexaminer.com. November 20, 2014.

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

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Mean, Acceptance, Accepting

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• I want people to emphasize life before death as opposed to life after death.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  People, Want, Before Death

  "'Kelly File' special: Defying the Sword". "The Kelly File," May 24, 2015, www.foxnews.com. May 26, 2015.

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