Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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

“In April 2006, a Dutch court ordered that I leave my safe-home that I was renting from the State. The judge concluded that my neighbors had a right to argue that they felt unsafe because of...”

“When I was with the Labor Party, I'd get into trouble because the party bosses determined that some of what I wrote, or proposed to write about, wasn't conducive to their policies or to elec...”

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

“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.”

“My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been insufficiently reverent toward Islam.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Catholics should be proselytizing about a God who is love, who represents a hereafter where there's no hell, who wants you to lead a life where you can confess your sins and feel much better...”

“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.”

“I am grateful to my father for sending me to school, and that we moved from Somalia to Kenya, where I learned English.”

“I'd love to go and visit the Mosque in Mecca again, just for the sheer beauty of it, not for God - much the way a non-Catholic might go to Vatican City because of the beauty of the buildings...”

“I call myself a liberal - a classical liberal as in John Stuart Mill.”

“I accept that there are multitudes seeking God, seeking meaning, and so on, but if they reject atheism, I would rather they became modern-day Catholics or Jews than that they became Muslims.”

“There are some mosques with facilities for women; it's usually a back room with a back-door entrance.”

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

“All my life I have been a nomad.”

“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 His comma...”