Islam Quotes by Salman Rushdie

Sometimes people have said that Islam, in its own calendar, is still only in the Middle Ages.

— Salman Rushdie

If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he'd be dead by now.

— Salman Rushdie

The mistake of the West was to put the Sauds on the throne of Saudi Arabia and give them control of the…

— Salman Rushdie

There is a widespread difficulty in the Muslim world, which has to do with how the people are taught about examining their…

— Salman Rushdie

If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity, these voices must be encouraged until they swell into a roar.

— Salman Rushdie

No, I don't think it's fair to label Islam 'violent.' But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever…

— Salman Rushdie

If I had simply wanted to trade on an insult to Islam, I could have done it in a sentence rather than…

— Salman Rushdie

Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West.

— Salman Rushdie

What happened in Pakistan was that people were told: You're all Muslim, so now you're a country. As we saw in 1971…

— Salman Rushdie

What I do think is evident is that those countries in the world where Islamic extremism has recovered the most power, those…

— Salman Rushdie

“If you are for Allah, I am for Al-Lat. And she doesn't believe your God when he recognizes her. Her opposition to…

— Salman Rushdie

In early Islam, it was an absolute tenet that the prophet was not to be worshipped. The prophet was a messenger. And…

— Salman Rushdie

Certainly, poverty and economic decline have a lot to do with the so-called rage of Islam. You've got all these young men…

— Salman Rushdie

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is…

— Salman Rushdie

In any authoritarian society, the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside, he will come after you. This…

— Salman Rushdie

“Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having…

— Salman Rushdie

I grew up in a family in which there was very little religion. My father wasn't religious at all. But he was…

— Salman Rushdie

I am certainly not a good Muslim. But I am able now to say that I am Muslim; in fact it is…

— Salman Rushdie

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into…

— Salman Rushdie

Sometimes people have said that Islam, in its own calendar, is still only in the Middle Ages. It's still in the fifteenth…

— Salman Rushdie

When we stop believing in gods we can start believing in their stories, I retort. There are of course no such things…

— Salman Rushdie

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has…

— Salman Rushdie

“O my vanity I am an arrogant man, is this weakness, is it just a dream of power? Must I betray myself…

— Salman Rushdie

To put it as simply as possible: I am not a Muslim.[...] I do not accept the charge of apostacy, because I…

— Salman Rushdie

“The police arrived and went to question the driver of the truck, who was still sitting in his cab, scratching his head.…

— Salman Rushdie

“So-called Islamic 'fundamentalism' does not spring, in Pakistan, from the people. It is imposed on them from above. Autocratic regimes find it…

— Salman Rushdie

The Muslim population in India is, largely speaking, not radicalised. From the beginning, they were always very secular-minded.

— Salman Rushdie

There needs to be a thorough examination, by Muslims everywhere, of why it is that the faith they love breeds so many…

— Salman Rushdie

I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture.

— Salman Rushdie

Islam doesn't have to mean blind faith. It can mean what it always meant in your family, a culture, a civilization, as…

— Salman Rushdie

“...one could accept Muhammad as a genuine mystic—just as one could accept Joan of Arc's voices as having genuinely been heard by…

— Salman Rushdie

When I was writing 'The Satanic Verses,' if you had asked me about the phenomenon that we all now know as radical…

— Salman Rushdie

This paranoid Islam, which blames outsider, 'infidels', for all the ills of Muslim societies, and whose proposed remedy is the closing of…

— Salman Rushdie

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is…

— Salman Rushdie

I determined to make my peace with Islam, even at the cost of my pride. Those who were surprised and displeased by…

— Salman Rushdie

We have seen many other not just writers and intellectuals, but including writers and intellectuals in the Muslim world being attacked and…

— Salman Rushdie

Islam is unusual in that it's the only one of the great world religions which was born inside recorded history. That there's…

— Salman Rushdie

I reluctantly concluded that there was no way for me to help bring into being the Muslim culture I'd dreamed of, the…

— Salman Rushdie

Even the Islam stuff I thought was pretty respectful about Islam in a funny way. I mean, yes, from a secular point…

— Salman Rushdie

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has…

— Salman Rushdie