--- title: "13 Islamism Quotes By Christopher Hitchens" description: "13 Islamism quotes by Christopher Hitchens. Plus more from Christopher Hitchens and more Islamism sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg" --- > [ “\[T\]his is an enemy for life, as well as an enemy of life.” ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an-enemy-of-life/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg) > [“The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forces-of-reaction-do-i-have-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4a/christopher-hitchens-117_culture_the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forc_3174608.jpg) > [“I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-voter-on-the-essential-question/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4a/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-vot_2464568.jpg) > [“Half the published articles on Gaza contain a standard reference to its resemblance to a vast open-air prison (and when I last…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-contain-a-standard-reference-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac3/christopher-hitchens-117_gaza_half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-cont_1350013.jpg) > [“It can certainly be misleading to take the attributes of a movement, or the anxieties and contradictions of a moment, and to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-the-attributes-of-a-movement/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-t_61390.jpg) > [“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties, that it was 'a war…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-political-and-military-war/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg) > [“Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit-the-history-of-the-crusades/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a24/christopher-hitchens-117_coming-home_now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit_1454496.jpg) > [“I am not one of those who believes—as Obama is said to believe—that a solution to the Palestinian statehood question would bring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-obama-is-said-to-believe-that-a/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/christopher-hitchens-117_atheism_i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-ob_2586456.jpg) > [ “\[T\]he very multiculturalism and multiethnicity that brought Salman to the West, and that also made us richer by Hanif Kureishi, Nadeem Aslam,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethnicity-that-brought-salman-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/535/christopher-hitchens-117_illegal-immigration_t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethn_2428300.jpg) > [“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under open skies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this-was-the-finish-for-me-here/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg) > [“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question-of-legality-and-illegality/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg) > [“Hitherto, the Palestinians had been relatively immune to this Allahu Akhbar style. I thought this was a hugely retrograde development. I said…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relatively-immune-to-this-allahu/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a88/christopher-hitchens-117_1981_hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relat_2564837.jpg) > [“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no means…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-apparent-cloak-of-anonymity-and/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg) ## Other authors on Islamism - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b023/author-tariq-ramadan-88946.jpg) Tariq Ramadan 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/tariq-ramadan/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b016/author-maajid-nawaz-62361.jpg) Maajid Nawaz 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/maajid-nawaz/) ## More by Christopher Hitchens > [“The spirit of our accurate and exact philosophy is outraged by conclusions that contradict each other so glaringly.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-spirit-of-our-accurate-and-exact-philosophy-is-outraged-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“Many governments employ torture but this was the first time that the element of Saturnalia and pornography in the process had been made so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/many-governments-employ-torture-but-this-was-the-first-time-that-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ It's \[Los Angeles\] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-los-angeles-mostly-full-of-nonsense-and-delusion-and-egomania/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-be-against-rationalization-is-not-the-same-as-to-be-opposed-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ \[Religion\] attacks us in our deepest integrity - the core of our self-respect. Religion says that we would not know right from wrong, we… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/religion-attacks-us-in-our-deepest-integrity-the-core-of-our-self/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“In the very recent past, we have seen the Church of Rome befouled by its complicity with the unpardonable sin of child rape, or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-the-very-recent-past-we-have-seen-the-church-of-rome-befouled-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-surprising-to-me-how-many-of-my-friends-send-christmas-cards-or/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-there-were-groups-of-secularists-at-hospitals-who-went-round/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-are-after-all-atheists-who-say-they-wish-the-fable-were-true/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“It isn’t so long since a test of Anglican orthodoxy was applied to anyone seeking to study or teach at Oxford and Cambridge universities.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-isn-t-so-long-since-a-test-of-anglican-orthodoxy-was-applied-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered-undesireable-qualities-in/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-much-worse-to-see-a-woman-drunk-than-a-man-i-don-t-know-quite/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's true that obscenity is a matter of taste and in the eye of the beholder.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-true-that-obscenity-is-a-matter-of-taste-and-in-the-eye-of-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [I worked out early on to give up things I couldn't do well at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-worked-out-early-on-to-give-up-things-i-couldn-t-do-well-at-all/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/writing-is-what-s-important-to-me-and-anything-that-helps-me-do-that/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/christopher-hitchens/#itemlist", "name": "13 Islamism Quotes By Christopher Hitchens", "numberOfItems": 13, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“[T]his is an enemy for life, as well as an enemy of life.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an-enemy-of-life/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“[T]his is an enemy for life, as well as an enemy of life.” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? The enslavement of women?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forces-of-reaction-do-i-have-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4a/christopher-hitchens-117_culture_the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forc_3174608.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4a/christopher-hitchens-117_culture_the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forc_3174608.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4a/christopher-hitchens-117_culture_the-united-states-finds-itself-with-forc_3174608.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that 'issue' I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-voter-on-the-essential-question/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4a/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-vot_2464568.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4a/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-vot_2464568.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4a/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_i-used-to-call-myself-a-single-issue-vot_2464568.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Half the published articles on Gaza contain a standard reference to its resemblance to a vast open-air prison (and when I last saw it under Israeli occupation it certainly did deserve this metaphor). The problem is that, given its ideology and its allies, Hamas qualifies rather too well in the capacity of guard and warder.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-contain-a-standard-reference-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac3/christopher-hitchens-117_gaza_half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-cont_1350013.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac3/christopher-hitchens-117_gaza_half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-cont_1350013.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac3/christopher-hitchens-117_gaza_half-the-published-articles-on-gaza-cont_1350013.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Half the published articles on Gaza contain a standard reference to its resemblance to a vast open-air…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It can certainly be misleading to take the attributes of a movement, or the anxieties and contradictions of a moment, and to personalize or 'objectify' them in the figure of one individual. Yet ordinary discourse would be unfeasible without the use of portmanteau terms—like 'Stalinism,' say—just as the most scrupulous insistence on historical forces will often have to concede to the sheer personality of a Napoleon or a Hitler. I thought then, and I think now, that Osama bin Laden was a near-flawless personification of the mentality of a real force: the force of Islamic jihad. And I also thought, and think now, that this force absolutely deserves to be called evil, and that the recent decapitation of its most notorious demagogue and organizer is to be welcomed without reserve. Osama bin Laden's writings and actions constitute a direct negation of human liberty, and vent an undisguised hatred and contempt for life itself.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-the-attributes-of-a-movement/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-t_61390.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-t_61390.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_it-can-certainly-be-misleading-to-take-t_61390.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It can certainly be misleading to take the attributes of a movement, or the anxieties and contradictions of…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties, that it was 'a war without end.' I never saw the point of this plaintive objection. The war against superstition and the totalitarian mentality is an endless war. In protean forms, it is fought and refought in every country and every generation. In bin Ladenism we confront again the awful combination of the highly authoritarian personality with the chaotically nihilist and anarchic one. Temporary victories can be registered against this, but not permanent ones. As Bertold Brecht's character says over the corpse of the terrible Arturo Ui, the bitch that bore him is always in heat. But it is in this struggle that we develop the muscles and sinews that enable us to defend civilization, and the moral courage to name it as something worth fighting for.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-political-and-military-war/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in Kashmir, or the woes of the Chechens and Kosovars. But the bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face, and there's no point in any euphemism about it. What they abominate about 'the West,' to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don't like and can't defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. Loose talk about chickens coming home to roost is the moral equivalent of the hateful garbage emitted by Falwell and Robertson, and exhibits about the same intellectual content.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit-the-history-of-the-crusades/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a24/christopher-hitchens-117_coming-home_now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit_1454496.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a24/christopher-hitchens-117_coming-home_now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit_1454496.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a24/christopher-hitchens-117_coming-home_now-is-as-good-a-time-as-ever-to-revisit_1454496.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I am not one of those who believes—as Obama is said to believe—that a solution to the Palestinian statehood question would bring an end to Muslim resentment against the United States. (Incidentally, if he really does believe this, his lethargy and impotence in the face of Netanyahu's consistent double-dealing is even more culpable.) The Islamist fanatics have their own agenda, and, as in the case of Hamas and its Iranian backers, they have already demonstrated that nothing but the destruction of Israel and the removal of American influence from the region will possibly satisfy them. No, it is more the case that justice—and a homeland for the Palestinians—is a good and necessary cause in its own right. It is also a special legal and moral responsibility of the United States, which has several times declared a dual-statehood outcome to be its objective.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-obama-is-said-to-believe-that-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/christopher-hitchens-117_atheism_i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-ob_2586456.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/christopher-hitchens-117_atheism_i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-ob_2586456.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/christopher-hitchens-117_atheism_i-am-not-one-of-those-who-believes-as-ob_2586456.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I am not one of those who believes—as Obama is said to believe—that a solution to the Palestinian statehood…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“[T]he very multiculturalism and multiethnicity that brought Salman to the West, and that also made us richer by Hanif Kureishi, Nadeem Aslam, Vikram Seth, Monica Ali, and many others, is now one of the disguises for a uni culturalism, based on moral relativism and moral blackmail (in addition to some more obvious blackmail of the less moral sort) whereby the Enlightenment has been redefined as 'white' and 'oppressive,' mass illegal immigration threatens to spoil everything for everybody, and the figure of the free-floating transnational migrant has been deposed by the contorted face of the psychopathically religious international nihilist, praying for the day when his messianic demands will coincide with possession of an apocalyptic weapon. (These people are not called nihilists for nothing.) Of all of this we were warned, and Salman was the messenger. Mutato nomine et de te fabula narrator : Change only the name and this story is about you.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethnicity-that-brought-salman-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/535/christopher-hitchens-117_illegal-immigration_t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethn_2428300.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/535/christopher-hitchens-117_illegal-immigration_t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethn_2428300.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/535/christopher-hitchens-117_illegal-immigration_t-he-very-multiculturalism-and-multiethn_2428300.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“[T]he very multiculturalism and multiethnicity that brought Salman to the West, and that also made us richer…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under open skies in broad daylight by the most reactionary and vicious force in the contemporary world, a force which treats Afghans and Algerians and Egyptians far worse than it has yet been able to treat us. The vaunted CIA and FBI are asleep, at best. The working-class heroes move, without orders and at risk to their lives, to fill the moral and political vacuum. The moral idiots, meanwhile, like Falwell and Robertson and Rabbi Lapin, announce that this clerical aggression is a punishment for our secularism. And the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, hitherto considered allies on our 'national security' calculus, prove to be the most friendly to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Here was a time for the Left to demand a top-to-bottom house-cleaning of the state and of our covert alliances, a full inquiry into the origins of the defeat, and a resolute declaration in favor of a fight to the end for secular and humanist values: a fight which would make friends of the democratic and secular forces in the Muslim world. And instead, the near-majority of 'Left' intellectuals started sounding like Falwell, and bleating that the main problem was Bush's legitimacy. So I don't even muster a hollow laugh when this pathetic faction says that I, and not they, are in bed with the forces of reaction.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this-was-the-finish-for-me-here/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the right of the United States to self-defense and further called upon all member states 'to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks. It added that 'those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of those acts will be held accountable.' In a speech the following month, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly acknowledged the right of self-defense as a legitimate basis for military action. The SEAL unit dispatched by President Obama to Abbottabad was large enough to allow for the contingency of bin-Laden's capture and detention. The naïve statement that he was 'unarmed' when shot is only loosely compatible with the fact that he was housed in a military garrison town, had a loaded automatic weapon in the room with him, could well have been wearing a suicide vest, had stated repeatedly that he would never be taken alive, was the commander of one of the most violent organizations in history, and had declared himself at war with the United States. It perhaps says something that not even the most casuistic apologist for al-Qaeda has ever even attempted to justify any of its 'operations' in terms that could be covered by any known law, with the possible exception of some sanguinary verses of the Koran.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question-of-legality-and-illegality/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Hitherto, the Palestinians had been relatively immune to this Allahu Akhbar style. I thought this was a hugely retrograde development. I said as much to Edward. To reprint Nazi propaganda and to make a theocratic claim to Spanish soil was to be a protofascist and a supporter of 'Caliphate' imperialism: it had nothing at all to do with the mistreatment of the Palestinians. Once again, he did not exactly disagree. But he was anxious to emphasize that the Israelis had often encouraged Hamas as a foil against Fatah and the PLO. This I had known since seeing the burning out of leftist Palestinians by Muslim mobs in Gaza as early as 1981. Yet once again, it seemed Edward could only condemn Islamism if it could somehow be blamed on either Israel or the United States or the West, and not as a thing in itself. He sometimes employed the same sort of knight's move when discussing other Arabist movements, excoriating Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, for example, mainly because it had once enjoyed the support of the CIA. But when Saddam was really being attacked, as in the case of his use of chemical weapons on noncombatants at Halabja, Edward gave second-hand currency to the falsified story that it had 'really' been the Iranians who had done it. If that didn't work, well, hadn't the United States sold Saddam the weaponry in the first place? Finally, and always—and this question wasn't automatically discredited by being a change of subject—what about Israel's unwanted and ugly rule over more and more millions of non-Jews? I evolved a test for this mentality, which I applied to more people than Edward. What would, or did, the relevant person say when the United States intervened to stop the massacres and dispossessions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo? Here were two majority-Muslim territories and populations being vilely mistreated by Orthodox and Catholic Christians. There was no oil in the region. The state interests of Israel were not involved (indeed, Ariel Sharon publicly opposed the return of the Kosovar refugees to their homes on the grounds that it set an alarming—I want to say 'unsettling'—precedent). The usual national-security 'hawks,' like Henry Kissinger, were also strongly opposed to the mission. One evening at Edward's apartment, with the other guest being the mercurial, courageous Azmi Bishara, then one of the more distinguished Arab members of the Israeli parliament, I was finally able to leave the arguing to someone else. Bishara [...] was quite shocked that Edward would not lend public support to Clinton for finally doing the right thing in the Balkans. Why was he being so stubborn? I had begun by then—belatedly you may say—to guess. Rather like our then-friend Noam Chomsky, Edward in the final instance believed that if the United States was doing something, then that thing could not by definition be a moral or ethical action.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relatively-immune-to-this-allahu/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a88/christopher-hitchens-117_1981_hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relat_2564837.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a88/christopher-hitchens-117_1981_hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relat_2564837.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a88/christopher-hitchens-117_1981_hitherto-the-palestinians-had-been-relat_2564837.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Hitherto, the Palestinians had been relatively immune to this Allahu Akhbar style. I thought this was a…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no means an invisible man. He was ubiquitous and palpable, both in a physical and a cyber-spectral form, to the extent that his death took on something of the feel of an exorcism. It is satisfying to know that, before the end came, he had begun at least to guess at the magnitude of his 9/11 mistake. It is essential to remember that his most fanatical and militant deputy, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, did not just leave his corpse in Iraq but was isolated and repudiated even by the minority Sunnis on whose presumed behalf he spilled so much blood and wrought such hectic destruction. It is even more gratifying that bin Laden himself was exposed as an excrescence on the putrid body of a bankrupt and brutish state machine, and that he found himself quite unable to make any coherent comment on the tide—one hopes that it is a tide, rather than a mere wave—of demand for an accountable and secular form of civil society. There could not have been a finer affirmation of the force of life, so warmly and authentically counterposed to the hysterical celebration of death, and of that death-in-life that is experienced in the stultifications of theocracy, where womanhood and music and literature are stifled and young men mutated into robotic slaughterers.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-apparent-cloak-of-anonymity-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/christopher-hitchens/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/christopher-hitchens/", "name": "Islamism Quotes by Christopher Hitchens", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islamism/christopher-hitchens/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg" }, "description": "13 Islamism quotes by Christopher Hitchens. 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