Ayaan Hirsi Ali

It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Every time I went on TV I got a threat.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I do not believe in God, angels and the hereafter.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“You must learn what to fear and what not to fear.”

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I would rather clean than beg.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I love life more than I love death.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

All my life I have been a nomad.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I call myself a liberal - a classical liberal as in John Stuart Mill.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I don't have much in me left for Somalia, because the country is so broken, it's not realistic to daydream about it.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“Force and rape are not an issue because he is a believing Muslim and he is an Osman Mahamud.”

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Drinking wine and wearing trousers were nothing compared to reading the history of ideas.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn't make it easier.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

We must reclaim and retake feminism from our fellow idiotic women.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Over the course of my life, I have made many transitions - most of them taking me further away from my Somali…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

With the first commandment, Mohammed tried to imprison common sense. And with the second commandment, the beautiful, romantic side of mankind was…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

As soon as something like Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian' appears with a Muhammad figure as the main lead, directed by…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I believe that the dysfunctional Muslim family constitutes a real threat to the very fabric of western life. It is in the…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The idea that if people are just friendly and demonstrate they want peace, that will be answered with good will - that…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

When a 'Life of Brian' comes out with Muhammad in the lead role, directed by an Arab equivalent of Theo van Gogh,…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I grew up in Somalia, in Saudi Arabia, in Ethiopia, and in Kenya. I came to Europe in 1992, when I was…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

When I was in Holland, the idea was, all cultures are equal and all are to be preserved. My idea was, no,…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“Multiculturalism helps immigrants postpone the pain of letting go of the anachronistic and inappropriate. It locks people into corrupt, inefficient, and unjust…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“This was an infidel country, whose way of life we Muslims were supposed to oppose and reject. Why was it, then, so…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture’s intolerance. If we do in fact support diversity, women’s rights, and gay rights,…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“When I look at people talking about intersectionality, what I see is the human being magnifying a biological attribute, and then putting…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The liberal psyche wants to protect minorities, to apologize for imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and the appalling treatment of black people during the…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, nonpersons. The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“The Muslim veil, the different sorts of masks and beaks and "burkas", are all gradations of mental slavery. (...) The veil deliberately…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Women covering their heads is traditional, but now we're seeing more and more women covering themselves from head to toe. This is…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Infuriatingly stupid analysts - especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“Almost all the angry letters I received were from Muslims. People called me an Uncle Tom, white on the inside, a traitor…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny. The Prophet…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“People accuse me of having interiorized a feeling of racial inferiority, so that I attack my own culture out of self-hatred, because…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“It is always difficult to make the transition to a modern world. I moved from the world of faith to the world…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“The morning after the 9/11 attacks...we began talking about the Twin Towers attack. Ruud shook his head sadly about it all. He…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“Many well-meaning Dutch people have told me in all earnestness that nothing in Islamic culture incites abuse of women, that this is…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

“I would not have put it this way in those days, but because I was born a woman, I could never become…

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali