Islam Quotes

"There is always a need for intoxication: China has opium, Islam has hashish, the West has woman"

"This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition"

"Practically the only way to dry the swamp of radical Islam is through economic development and an improved standard of living"

Yitzhak Rabin, Statesman

"It is not right to associate the fight against international terrorist networks with an imaginary crusade against Islam"

Omar Bongo, Statesman

"There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them"

Peter King, Politician

"I've been to Africa three times. All right? You can't bring Western reasoning into the culture. The same way you can't bring it into fundamental Islam"

Bill O'Reilly, Journalist

"Moderation is part of faith, so those who accuse Muslim schools of fostering fanaticism should learn a bit more about Islam"

Cat Stevens, Musician

"I did not come into contact with any Muslim before I embraced Islam. I read the Qur'an first and realized no person is perfect, Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the Holy Prophet... we will be successful"

Cat Stevens, Musician

"I'm an Arab, but I'm also a citizen of the world. Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is not exclusive"

Moustapha Akkad, Director

"The cause of the break with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam. The result of this advance was the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity"

Henri Pirenne, Historian

"We claim Islam as Deen or a complete way of life"

Pervez Musharraf, Statesman

"The revival of Islam dates from the early years of the 20th century. It was brought about by their humiliation, by their sense of how low they'd fallen compared with the West"

John Keegan, Historian

"The Islam of the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century was a poor thing. Nobody bothered about it. Islam was that funny sort of pure system of beliefs that depressed people in the Middle East held as their religion"

John Keegan, Historian

"Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism, in Islam - have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom, to enlightenment"

Bell Hooks, Critic

"The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous"

Brent Scowcroft, Public Servant

"Similarly, it is argued that the culture of Islam is incompatible with democracy. Basically, this conventional perspective of the Middle East thus contends that democracy in that region is neither possible nor even desirable"

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President

"Establishing an equilibrium between the Islam of truth and Islam as an identity is one of the most difficult tasks of religious intellectuals"

Abdolkarim Soroush, Philosopher

"Islam expect every Muslim to do this duty, and if we realise our responsibility time will come soon when we shall justify ourselves worthy of a glorious past"

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Politician

"President Bush's war on Iraq is viewed broadly in Islamic communities as an attack on Islam, and thus the President has alienated a large part of one fifth of the world's population"

John Olver, Politician

"Reject racial or religious hate. Embrace moderate Islam"

Geraldo Rivera, Journalist

"Whether it's people walking off 'The View' when Bill O'Reilly makes a statement about radical Islam or Juan Williams being fired for expressing his opinion, over-reaching political correctness is chipping away at the fundamental American freedoms of speech and expression"

Eric Cantor, Politician

"Throughout the past, there has been a lack of intimacy, affection, and regard for Islam by Christianity. This, to a large extent, has been due to a lack of knowledge of the great human and spiritual ideals for which Islam and the teachings of Islam stand"

Aly Khan, Public Servant

"It is apparent that Christianity and Islam must come, and come immediately, to a closer understanding, and it is equally apparent that their unity if achieved, will be the most effective defensive measure against Communist expansion"

Aly Khan, Public Servant

"Fortunately, historians are now beginning to recognise the historic role of Islam as a liberating force for peoples oppressed by the burdens of unjust social systems"

Aly Khan, Public Servant

"Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre"

Steve Earle, Musician

"All too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam, which teaches one to be lenient towards others and to understand their value systems, knowing that these are tolerated by Islam as a religion"

Abdurrahman Wahid, Statesman

"This Islam business kidnapped me"

Oriana Fallaci, Journalist

"Europe is no longer Europe, it is Eurabia, a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense"

Oriana Fallaci, Journalist

"I am ready to sacrifice everything in completing the unfinished agenda of our noble jihad... until there is no bloodshed in Afghanistan and Islam becomes a way of life for our people"

Mohammed Omar, Clergyman

"The values of Islam are expressed by Muslims clearly. September 11 changed the world, and put Muslims on the spotlight"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"When leading evangelicals say terrible things about Islam, evil things about Islam, terrible things about Muhammad, they ought to be ashamed of themselves"

Tony Campolo, Clergyman

"Islam is a religion of success. Unlike Christianity, which has as its main image, in the west at least, a man dying in a devastating, disgraceful, helpless death"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"If we cling to the institution of Islam, then we tend to defend it against whatever we see as a danger to it, so because of this we see now that many people are defending states, defending territories, defending everything institutional in the belief that they defend Islam"

Abdurrahman Wahid, Statesman

"The U.S. always needs an enemy. It comes and goes. Today it is Islam. According to this plan or ideology of the born-again Christians who formed an alliance with Zionism, Islam is the monster"

Walid Jumblatt, Politician

"Every fundamentalist movement I've studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced at some gut, visceral level that secular liberal society wants to wipe out religion"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"Was Islam spread by them through force and coercion? No. They preached Islam by personal example"

Pervez Musharraf, Statesman

"Islam teaches tolerance, not hatred; universal brotherhood, not enmity; peace, and not violence"

Pervez Musharraf, Statesman

"Radical Islam has been the foe of Christendom for centuries"

Tom Tancredo, Politician

"Well, the most important thing about Islam is that we have to differentiate between two kinds of Islam. The first one is the institution of Islam... second, the culture of Islam"

Abdurrahman Wahid, Statesman

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