I confront the European elite’s self-image as tolerant ‘while under their noses women are living like slaves. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
My conscience is informed by reason. It’s like Kant’s categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you. – 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
Liberal capitalism is not perfect, but compared to the other ‘isms,’ it’s far superior. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no: I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
There are some mosques with facilities for women; it’s usually a back room with a back-door entrance. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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
When a ‘Life of Brian’ comes out with Muhammad in the lead role, directed by an Arab equivalent of Theo van Gogh, it will be a huge step forward. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been insufficiently reverent toward Islam. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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 Muslim community. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
A Western woman is not her brother’s or her father’s property. She’s just herself. She can choose her own lifestyle. But in a Muslim family, the honor of the man is between the legs of a woman. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Over the course of my life, I have made many transitions – most of them taking me further away from my Somali roots and steadily toward the enlightened mentality of Western democracy. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Of course, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists or sympathetic to terrorists. Equating all Muslims with terrorism is stupid and wrong. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
There’s peacetime and there’s wartime, and you don’t need polarization on wartime issues. You need polarization on all other issues. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I am not against migration. It is simply pragmatic to restrict migration, while at the same time encouraging integration and fighting discrimination. I support the idea of the free movement of goods, people, money and jobs in Europe. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
If we don’t take effective measures now, the Netherlands could be torn between two extreme rights. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
You have to let individuals make their own choices and respect that, even if it’s your own child. And that’s what was taken away from me. My father passed away thinking I still had to go back to his way of believing. – Ayaan Hirsi Ali