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“I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.”
― Muhammad Abduh

“Some Christians pretend that Christianity was not established by the sword; but of what period of time do they speak? It was impossible that twelve men could begin with the sword: they had not the power; but no sooner were the professors of Christianity sufficiently powerful to employ the sword than they did so, and the stake and faggot too; and Mahomet could not do it sooner. By the same spirit that Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant (if the story be true) he would cut off his head, and the head of his master, had he been able. Besides this, Christianity grounds itself originally upon the [Hebrew] Bible, and the Bible was established altogether by the sword, and that in the worst use of it �� not to terrify, but to extirpate. The Jews made no converts: they butchered all. The Bible is the sire of the [New] Testament, and both are called the word of God. The Christians read both books; the ministers preach from both books; and this thing called Christianity is made up of both. It is then false to say that Christianity was not established by the sword.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“On the rare occasion that someone does invite a Muslim to his or her home, differences in culture and hospitality may make the Muslim feel uncomfortable, and the host must be willing to ask, learn, and adapt to overcome this. There are simply too many barriers for Muslim immigrants to understand Christians and the West by sheer circumstance. Only the exceptional blend of love, humility, hospitality, and persistence can overcome these barriers, and not enough people make the effort.”
― Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

“One's interest or need does not annul other's right.”
― Al-Hafiz B.A. Masri, Islamic Concern for Animals

“Abraham had eight sons--not one. All eight sons bring something to the table. Abraham loved all of his sons. He was a good father who made sure all his sons were literate, of good character and shared a common ideology with their father, Abraham. Abraham did good. Where did we go wrong?”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters

“It is much easier to condemn Islam and 'oppressive Muslim men' than to unpack the intricate relationships between global politics related to empire building and capitalist expansion as well as regional and national struggles revolving around political and economic power and resources.”
― Nadje Al-Ali, What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq

“Many critics of the Crusades would seem to suppose that after the Muslims had overrun a major portion of Christendom, they should have been ignored or forgiven; suggestions have been made about turning the other cheek. This outlook is certainly unrealistic and probably insincere. Not only had the Byzantines lost most of their empire; the enemy was at their gates. And the loss of Spain, Sicily, and southern Italy, as well as a host of Mediterranean islands, was bitterly resented in Europe. Hence, as British historian Derek Lomax (1933-1992) explained, 'The popes, like most Christians, believed war against the Muslims to be justified partly because the latter had usurped by force lands which once belonged to Christians and partly because they abused the Christians over whom they ruled and such Christian lands as they could raid for slaves, plunder and the joys of destruction.' It was time to strike back.”
― Rodney Stark, God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades

“Suppose that members of a religious movement, such as Christianity, maintain that the existence of some powerful god and its goals or laws can be known through their scriptures, their prophets, or some special revelation. Suppose further that the evidence that is available to support the reliability of those scriptures, prophets, or special revelations is weaker than that God is hypothetically capable of producing. That is, suppose that Christians maintain that Jesus was resurrected on the basis of the Gospels, or that God’s existence can be known through the Bible, or Muslims insist on the historical authenticity of the Koran. Could God, the almighty creator of the universe, have brought it about so that the evidence in favor of the resurrection, the Bible, or the Koran was better than we currently find it? I take it that the answer is obviously yes. Even if you think there is evidence that is sufficient to prove the resurrection, a reasonable person must also acknowledge that it could have been better. And there’s the problem.

If the capacity of that god is greater than the effectiveness or quality of those scriptures, prophets, or special revelations, then the story they are telling contradicts itself. 'We know our god is real on the basis of evidence that is inadequate for our god.' Or, 'The grounds that lead us to believe in our god are inconsistent with the god we accept; nevertheless, we believe in this god that would have given us greater evidence if it had wished for us to believe in it.'

Given the disparity between the gods that these religious movements portend and the grounds offered to justify them, the atheist is warranted in dismissing such claims. If the sort of divine being that they promote were real and if he had sought our believe on the basis of the evidence, the evidential situation would not resemble the one we are in. The story doesn’t make internal sense. A far better explanation is that their enthusiasm for believing in a god has led them to overstate what the evidence shows. And that same enthusiasm has made it difficult for them to see that an all powerful God would have the power to make his existence utterly obvious and undeniable. Since it’s not, the non-believer can’t possibly be faulted for failing to believe.”
― Matt McCormick

“For the Arabs, and the above all for the 1.2 million Arabs of Palestine, the partitioning of the land in which they had been a majority for seven centuries seemed a monstrous injustice thrust upon them by white Western imperialism in expiation of a crime they had not committed. With few exceptions, the Jewish people had dwelt in relative security among the Arabs over the centuries. The golden age of the Diaspora had come in the Spain of the caliphs, and the Ottoman Turks had welcomed the Jews when the doors of much of Europe were closed to them. The ghastly chain of crimes perpetrated on the Jewish people culminating in the crematoriums of Germany had been inflicted on them by the Christian nations of Europe, not those of the Islamic East, and it was on those nations, not theirs, the Arabs maintained, that the burden of those sins should fall. Beyond that, seven hundred years of continuous occupation seemed to the Arabs a far more valid claim to the land than the Jews' historic ties, however deep.”
― Larry Collins, Ô Jérusalem

“I want you all to stand like the Muslims who stood with La ilaaha ilalla for Truth and Right”
― Imran Khan

“The Sufi Islam practiced in northern India is quite different from the Shi'a Islam practiced in Lebannon, which in turn is different from the Sunni Islam practiced in Pakistan. Even within a single branch of Islam there are customs and practices that vary by region and across time. Thus, the Islam of seventh-century Arabia is different from the Wahhabism that exists today in Saudi Arabia.”
― Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire

“إن من يسمون عندنا برجال الدين قوم حفظوا قواعد الدين ودرسوها كما تُدرس الرياضة والجغرافيا لكنهم قلّ أن يحيوها بحيث تتمثل حية في أشخاصهم”
― زكي نجيب محمود, أيام في أمريكا

“...Amar was made conscious in an instant of a presence in the air, something which had been there all the time, but which he had never isolated and identified. The thing was in him, he was a part of it, as was the man opposite him, and it was a part of them; it whispered to them that time was short, that the world they lived in was approaching its end, and beyond was unfathomable darkness. It was the premonition of inevitable defeat and annihilation, and it had always been there with them and in them, as intangible and as real as the night around them. Amar pulled two loose cigarettes out of his pocket and handed one to the potter. "Ah, the Moslems, the Moslems!" he sighed. "Who knows what's going to happen to them?”
― Paul Bowles, The Spider's House

“One of the outstanding sources of resistance to imperial power in the Muslim world came from Sufi groups. While Sufi brotherhoods are generally known for a more quietist and mystic approach to Islam, they traditionally rank among the best organized and most coherent groupings in society. They constitute ready-made organizations - social-based NGOs, if you will - for maintaining Islamic culture and practices under periods of extreme oppression and for fomenting resistance and guerrilla warfare against foreign occupation. The history of Sufi participation in dozens of liberation struggles is long and widespread across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Sufi groups were prominent in the anti-Soviet resistance, and later against the American in Afghanistan and against US occupation forces in Iraq.”
― Graham Fuller

“These lecture provide material for the consideration of common factors, in theory and in development, from the viewpoint of the idea of surrender to the Divine Will, reviewing some aspects of the interplay between Christians and Moslems, and introducing material from and about Sufis.”
― Idries Shah, Elephant in the Dark

“From imperial, economic and ideological causes, many cultures are the inheritors, and hence the prisoners, of attitudes of scorn and disdain for other faiths �� outlooks which are not ennobling to anyone.”
― Idries Shah, Elephant in the Dark

“How does the Christian who claims a weeping statue of Mary is a miracle explain the milk-drinking statues of the Hindu god Ganesha?
How does the Christian who says a healing miracle proves the existence of Jesus feel about millions of claims of divine healings by Muslims and Hindus?”
― Guy P. Harrison, 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian

“فليس البرّ أيها المسلمون أن تولّوا وجوهكم في كلّ عام إلى الحج أو إلى زيارة العتبات, فالحجّ واجبٌ ومستحب والزيادة كذلك ولكن أن يصبح عادة في كل عام إلى ثلاثين وأربعين مرّة بينما إخوانكم يموتون جوعاً فهذا مالا يرضاه الله أبداً”
― محمد التيجاني السماوي, كل الحلول عند آل الرسول

“الدين غريزة فطرية عند النسان أيا كان وفي أي عصر عاش. إل أن هذه الفطرة إذا غذيت
بالعلم والتحرر الفكري، هدي صاحبها إلى معرفة الدين الحق..أما إذا تركت دون أن يشرق فيها ضياء العلم، فإنها قد تضل بصاحبها،
وتزج به في سبل الغواية وتخضعه للأوهام والأساطير.”
― الدكتور محمد سعيد رمضان البوطي

“Here’s a little thought experiment. Imagine that, on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down, the President of the United States was not George W. Bush, but Ann Coulter. What would have happened then? On September 12, President Coulter would have ordered the US military forces to drop 35 nuclear bombs throughout the Middle East, killing all of our actual and potential enemy combatants, and their wives and children. On September 13, the war would have been over and won, without a single American life lost.”
― Satoshi Kanazawa, Social Class & Social Policy

“We are living in a highly contentious period ... We have a split in our society �� 50 percent say it’s night and 50 percent say it’s day �� and it’s not only on the issue of Muslims, but this is true for almost any issue we have, from health care, to immigration, to the budget, to how we deal with the economy after a collapse.”
― Ben Daniel, The Search for Truth about Islam: A Christian Pastor Separates Fact from Fiction

“[Taliban spokesman on Malala Yousafzai]

Malala Yousafzai targeted and criticized Islam. She was against Islam and we tried to kill her, and if we get a chance again we will definitely try to kill her, and we will feel proud killing her.”
― Shahidullah Shahid

“Allah-U-Akbar (God is great) is the most frightening word, because it always reminds me that someone is committing crime;specifically murder.”
― M.F. Moonzajer

“Around our enthusiasm, are the ways to surround our destinies.”
― M.H. Rakib, Pakistan

“Being a Muslim is not a joke but a challenge. If you think it is, come and live in Pakistan where you will know about Muslims' enemies around the globe”
― Faisal Nawaz Maitlo

“It isn't a coincidence that the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat happened after September 11. Gujarat is also one place where the toxic waste of the World Trade Center is being dumped right now. This waste is being dumped in Gujarat, and then taken of to Ludhiana and places like that to be recycled. I think it's quite a metaphor. The demonization of Muslims has also been given legitimacy by the world's superpower, by the emperor himself. We are at a stage where democracy - this corrupted, scandalous version of democracy - is the problem. So much of what politicians do is with an eye on elections. Wars are fought as election campaigns. In India, Muslims are killed as part of election campaigns. In 1984, after the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi, the Congress Party won, hands down. We must ask ourselves very serious questions about this particular brand of democracy.”
― Arundhati Roy, The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy

“Dehbia connaît bien les siens Il n'ont de chrétien que le nom. L'un des premiers d'entre eux, converti au début du siècle et qui a d'ailleurs sa croix au cimetière de la paroisse, leur traça une ligne de conduite que beaucoup suivent ingénieusement. Jadis, racontent-ils, ce néophyte à peine dégrossi fut surpris par un Père faisant à la mosquée sa prière parmi les musulmans.
- C'était bien toi, hier soir, à la mosquée?
- Oui, mon père.
- Tu n'es pas musulman.
- Pourquoi pas, mon père ? Je le suis de naissance. Il paraît que le Père n'a pas beaucoup insisté.
Actuellement, ils ne vont plus à la mosquée mais ils jurent par les saints du pays, pratiquent la circoncision comme les bons musulmans et célèbrent es Aïds aussi bien que la Noël. Leurs femmes, aussi superstitieuses que toutes les autres, croient aux pratiques des bonnes vieilles et, pour connaître l'avenir, rendent visite aux mêmes derviches.
Tout cela, Dehbia le sait et beaucoup d'autres choses. Bien sûr qu'ils ont reçu le baptême et avec le baptême un nom chrétien. Les Pères leur ont distribué généreusement des "Marie", des "Jean", et surtout des "Augustin", des "Monique" comme cela se devait en pays berbère, mais à côté de ces noms, existe toujours le nom kabyle, Mohammed, Akli, Rabah, Saïd, et la faculté de s'en servir.”
― Mouloud Feraoun

“Communists and Muslims are not the enemies to fear in this land, Fly. It is the food consumption that will eventually blow up in everyone’s faces.”
― Rawi Hage, Carnival

“[…] die Angst vor Überwachung aufgrund von Terrorgefahr ist dort [bei der Gemeinschaft der amerikanischen Muslime] besonders stark und tiefgreifend. Und die Muslime haben auch allen Grund dazu. 2012 enthüllten Adam Goldberg und Matt Apuzzo von Associated Press gemeinsame Pläne der CIA und des New Yorker Police Department, ganze muslimische Gemeinden in den USA physisch und elektronisch zu überwachen, selbst wenn nicht einmal der geringste Hinweis auf irgendwelche kriminellen Handlungen bestand. Die Auswirkungen auf ihr Leben beschreiben amerikanische Muslime oft so: Jeder neue Besucher einer Moschee wird als mutmaßlicher FBI-Spitzel betrachtet; im Freundes- und Familienkreis hält man sich in Gesprächen bedeckt, aus Angst, bespitzelt zu werden, und in dem Bewusstsein, dass jede vermeintlich amerikafeindliche Äußerung zum Anlass für Ermittlungen und sogar für Strafverfolgung genommen werden kann.”
― Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State

“The Hebrews have no name for Him, the Moslems have a hundred. Both suggest the same thing, that there are concepts as well as emotions that can be communicated only allegorically.”
― Dagobert D. Runes, A Dictionary of Thought