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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

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I Cannot Emphasize Enough

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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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.

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This Was Not An Attack By A Mentally Deranged, Lone-wolf Gunman. This Was Not An 'un-islamic' Attack By A Bunch Of Thugs - The Perpetrators Could Be Heard Shouting That They Were Avenging The Prophet Muhammad. Nor Was It Spontaneous. It Was Planned To Inflict Maximum Damage, During A Staff Meeting, With Automatic Weapons And A Getaway Plan. It Was Designed To Sow Terror, And In That It Has Worked.

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I'd Like Muslims To Look At Their Religion As A Set Of Beliefs That They Can Appraise Critically And Pick And Choose From.

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.

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 And The Artifacts.

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 My Presence In The Building.

It Takes A Long Time To Dissolve The Bars Of A Mental Cage.

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I Assume The Closest Members Of My Family Don't Actually Want To Kill Me, But The Truth Is That I Have Shamed And Hurt Them; They Have To Deal With The Outrage That My Public Statements Cause, And Undoubtedly Some Members Of My Clan Do Want To Kill Me For That.

I Would Rather Clean Than Beg.

You'll Be Pleased To Hear, Christopher, That I Am No Longer A Muslim Liberal But An Atheist [....] I Find That It Obviates The Necessity For Any Cognitive Dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance

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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.

My Conscience Is Informed By Reason. It's Like Kant's Categorical Imperative: Behave To Others As You Would Wish They Behaved To You.

Categorical Imperative

I Think Of Canada, First And Foremost, In Terms Of Space. The Amount Of Space Available Is Breathtaking.

Many People In Europe And The U.s. Dispute The Thesis That We Are Living Through A Clash Of Civilisations Between Islam And The West. But A Radical Minority Of Muslims Firmly Believes That Islam Is Under Siege, And Is Committed To Winning The Holy War It Has Declared Against The West.

I Want People To Emphasize Life Before Death As Opposed To Life After Death.

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My Brother Thinks It Is Very, Very Bad That I Left Islam. My Half-sister Wants To Convert Me Back; I Want To Convert Her To Western Values. My Mum Is Terrified That When I Die, And We All Go To God, I Will Be Burned.

...bin Laden's Quotes From The Quaran Resonated In My Brain: "when You Meet The Unbelievers, Strike Them In The Neck." "if You Do Not Go Out And Fight, God Will Punish You Severely And Put Others In Your Place." "wherever You Find The Polytheists, Kill Them, Seize Them, Besiege Them, Ambush Them." "you Who Believe, Do Not Take The Jews And Christians As Friends; They Are Allies Only To Each Other. Anyone Who Takes Them As An Ally Becomes One Of Them.

It Is Easy To Be Disgruntled If You Are Denied Rights And Freedoms To Which You Feel Entitled. But If You Are Not Coherent, If You Cannot Put Into Words What It Is That Displeases You And Why It Is Unfair And Should Change, Then You Are Dismissed As An Unreasonable Whiner. You May Be Lectured About Perseverance And Patience, Life As A Test, The Need To Accept The Higher Wisdom Of Others.

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What Matters Is Abuse, And How It Is Anchored In A Religion That Denies Women Their Rights As Humans. What Matters Is That Atrocities Against Women And Children Are Carried Out In Europe. What Matters Is That Governments And Societies Must Stop Hiding Behind A Hollow Pretense Of Tolerance So That They Can Recognize And Deal With The Problem.

As Soon As Something Like Monty Python's 'the Life Of Brian' Appears With A Muhammad Figure As The Main Lead, Directed By An Arabic Theo Van Gogh, The Controversial Late Dutch Filmmaker, We Will Have Taken An Enormous Step Forward.

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...bear True Witness, Even If It Be Against Yourselves, Your Parents Or Your Family.

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