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Portrait of Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali

(1943) Researcher United Kingdom

144 quotes in 738 categories

A country that is invaded and attacked needs a voice to defend its right to resist, says Tariq Ali. He criticizes American imperialism, the European Union's German‑driven dominance, and the decline of democracy in the West. He also links these issues to US hegemony in Europe.

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Tariq Ali is a researcher from the United Kingdom, best known for Street Fighting Years ; An Autobiography of the Sixties.

Quick Facts About Tariq Ali

Born: October 21, 1943
Nationality: United Kingdom
Profession: Researcher
Notable works: Street Fighting Years ; An Autobiography of the Sixties

About Tariq Ali

He serves on the editorial committees of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and contributes articles to CounterPunch and the London Review of Books. He also studies Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Exeter College, Oxford.

Awards & Honors

Q130553019

Quotes by Tariq Ali

Basically, we are witnessing the twilight of democracy.

Democracy

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Tony Blair is a war criminal.

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Power can shape 'truth,' but not forever.

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Revolutionaries are not infallible.

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Desperation is the result of globalization.

Desperation

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“ Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan were self-proclaimed atheists.”

Atheism

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It's a total failure of the Western imagination that the only enemy they can see is Adolph Hitler.

Adolph hitler

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In some ways, the '60s were a reaction to the '50s and the intensity of the Cold War.

Cold

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I am, in general, favourable to activism and social movements and hostile to graft and corruption.

Activism

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There are different versions of Islam... it is meaningless to claim to speak in the name of a ‘real’ Islam.

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After flirting with neoisolationism, the U.S. is now deciding it wants to run the world.

America

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Even if you reject everything, it is always better to know what it is you are rejecting.

Funny

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We were constantly appealing for funds from readers when I edited 'The Black Dwarf' in 1968-69.

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The U.S. should come out openly and say to the world, "We are the only imperial power, and we're going to rule…

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People are increasingly beginning to feel that democracy itself is being destroyed by this latest phase of globalization and that politics doesn't…

Democracy

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In times of crisis, the incumbent suffers. And the bigger the crisis, the greater the punishment inflicted on those in power unless…

Change

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Effectively, the EU is a very powerful bureaucracy, dominated now by the German elite, which is backed by the rest of the…

Bureaucracy

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The only continent where social movements have led to political parties that have pushed through serious social and political reforms is in…

America

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The function of a bourgeois democracy is to secure the consent of the masses to their own exploitation and oppression.

Bourgeois

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The sobbing of the weak today is the sobbing of the victims of neoliberal policies. They consist of billions of people all…

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Young women and men who joined the far-left groups did so for the best of reasons. They wanted to change the world.…

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When I arrived to study at Oxford in October 1963, the bohemian style was black plastic or leather jackets for women and…

Bohemian

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The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as…

Capitalism

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The EU is an alliance that the Americans control, in which the EU of course has a great deal of autonomy, but…

Alliances

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If there is a Greek exit from the Eurozone, I think the German elite will be quite pleased that they can then…

Country

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The U.S. is telling the Northern Alliance to kill Taliban prisoners. It's totally a breach of all the known conventions of war.…

Alliances

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The cinematic language and interior destiny of each Iranian film-maker is different. The international influences on them vary from Rossellini to Fellini,…

Cinema

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“[ Taken from a BBC documentary ] Tariq was born in Lahore, now in Pakistan, then part of British-ruled India, in 1943.…

Atheism

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To fight tyranny and oppression by using tyrannical and oppressive means, to combat a single-minded and ruthless fanaticism by becoming equally fanatical…

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Continuous wars - which we have now had since 2001 - starting with Afghanistan, continuing on to Iraq. And even since Iraq,…

Afghanistan

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Tayyip Erdogan wants to go beyond George W. Bush by making critical journalism and critics in the academy illegal. What will be…

Book

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At the moment we have a critical situation in Greece. Even as we speak, where there is an open attempt by the…

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“The Executive Committee of the People's Will had scored it's biggest success on 1 March 1881 by assassinating Alexander II, but also…

Failure

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Economics and politics are so intertwined and interlinked that politics now, mainstream politics, extreme center politics, are little else but a version…

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The genealogy of fictional characters can become an obsession, like train-spotting, and should be firmly resisted.

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“The heathen could only be eliminated as a force if their culture was completely erased.”

Culture

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Anthony Powell was the most European of 20th-century British novelists.

British

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Independence is the only way Scotland can realise its full political and cultural potential in the 21st century.

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We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

Illusion

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Western enthusiasm for democracy stops when those opposed to its policies are elected to office.

Democracy

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Tariq Ali by topic

World (21) Politics (20) War (17) Israel (16) Thinking (14) Political (13) Europe (12) United states (11) Unions (11) Time (10) People (10) Democracy (10) Country (10)