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Muslims Quotes

“During the Bosnian war in the late 1990s, I spent several days traveling around the country with Susan Sontag and her son, my dear friend David Rieff. On one occasion, we made a special detour to the town of Zenica, where there was reported to be a serious infiltration of outside Muslim extremists: a charge that was often used to slander the Bosnian government of the time. We found very little evidence of that, but the community itself was much riven as between Muslim, Croat, and Serb. No faction was strong enough to predominate, each was strong enough to veto the other's candidate for the chairmanship of the city council. Eventually, and in a way that was characteristically Bosnian, all three parties called on one of the town's few Jews and asked him to assume the job. We called on him, and found that he was also the resident intellectual, with a natural gift for synthesizing matters. After we left him, Susan began to chortle in the car. 'What do you think?' she asked. 'Do you think that the only dentist and the only shrink in Zenica are Jewish also?' It would be dense to have pretended not to see her joke.”

ReligionHumourExtremismReligious ExtremismJewsMuslimsBosniaIntellectualsBosnian WarZealotry1990sCroatsSerbsIslamic ExtremismDavid RieffCity CouncilsSontagZenica
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: 'But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)'; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders. ...All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in 'Al- Mughni,' Imam al-Kisa'i in 'Al-Bada'i,' al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: 'As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life.' On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.' ...We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. ...Almighty Allah also says: 'O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For Allah hath power over all things.' Almighty Allah also says: 'So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith.' [World Islamic Front Statement, 23 February 1998]”

DutyCivilizationDevilIslamTerrorismSatanAlmightyMuslimSuperstitionAmericanAmericansAllahMeccaMuslimsThe DevilFatwa
Author:Osama bin Laden
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“In Britain today friends of mine live like dissidents in a dictatorship. They meet in secret. They vet new arrivals to ensure they are not spies. They are ex-Muslims living in a supposedly free country who fear their enemies will damn them as apostates and kill them. How extraordinary that they must hide their true beliefs from all but intimate friends for fear of the consequences. And how shameful that they have no anti-fascist Left worthy of the name to defend them.”

LeftIslamLgbtGay RightsDissidentsMuslims
Author:Nick Cohen
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“Rwanda’s Muslim community is an example of a group (a full community rather than isolated individuals) that resisted the appeal of dangerous speech and other pressures to participate in the genocide. The Muslim community, which had both Hutu and Tutsi members, not only refused to participate in the genocide but actively opposed it. Its actions during the genocide included rescuing, hiding, and taking care of Muslim and non-Muslim Tutsis, and providing safe haven in mosques. Muslims also rejected commands to kill or reveal Tutsis hidden in their communities, on several occasions going so far as to fight back and be killed themselves.”

IslamMuslimMosquesRwandaMuslimsRwandan GenocideHutusTutsis
Book:Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech
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“The regime's policies, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had engendered a sharp divide between Muslims and Christians, in spite of the fact that generations of Muslims and Coptic Christians had lived together peacefully in the past. The regime was good at utilizing this divide to create a perception that without Mubarak in power, Egyptians would break out into sectarian warfare. As a result, Mubarak managed to market his police state successfully to the international community as the lesser of two evils.”

PoliticsMuslimsMubarakSectarian DivideCoptic ChristiansEvil Regime
Book:Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir
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“Centuries have passed since the wars of religion ceased in Europe, and since men stopped dying in large numbers because of arcane theological disputes. Hence, perhaps, the incredulity and denial with which Westerners have greeted news of the theology and practices of the Islamic State. Many refuse to believe that this group is as devout as it claims to be, or as backward-looking or apocalyptic as its actions and statements suggest. "Their skepticism is comprehensible. In the past, Westerners who accused Muslims of blindly following ancient scriptures came to deserved grief from academics—notably the late Edward Said—who pointed out that calling Muslims 'ancient' was usually just another way to denigrate them. Look instead, these scholars urged, to the conditions in which these ideologies arose—the bad governance, the shifting social mores, the humiliation of living in lands valued only for their oil. "Without acknowledgment of these factors, no explanation of the rise of the Islamic State could be complete. But focusing on them to the exclusion of ideology reflects another kind of Western bias: that if religious ideology doesn’t matter much in Washington or Berlin, surely it must be equally irrelevant in Raqqa or Mosul. When a masked executioner says Allahu akbar while beheading an apostate, sometimes he’s doing so for religious reasons.”

ReligionIslamTerrorismExtremismIslamic StateMuslims
Author:Graeme Wood
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“It would be facile, even exculpatory, to call the problem of the Islamic State 'a problem with Islam.' The religion allows many interpretations, and Islamic State supporters are morally on the hook for the one they choose. And yet simply denouncing the Islamic State as un-Islamic can be counterproductive, especially if those who hear the message have read the holy texts and seen the endorsement of many of the caliphate’s practices written plainly within them.”

IslamTerrorismExtremismIslamic StateMuslims
Author:Graeme Wood
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“The Islamic State’s ideology exerts powerful sway over a certain subset of the population. Life’s hypocrisies and inconsistencies vanish in its face. Musa Cerantonio and the Salafis I met in London are unstumpable: No question I posed left them stuttering. They lectured me garrulously and, if one accepts their premises, convincingly. To call them un-Islamic appears, to me, to invite them into an argument that they would win. If they had been froth-spewing maniacs, I might be able to predict that their movement would burn out as the psychopaths detonated themselves or became drone-splats, one by one. But these men spoke with an academic precision that put me in mind of a good graduate seminar. I even enjoyed their company, and that frightened me as much as anything else.”

IslamTerrorismFundamentalismExtremismIslamic StateMuslims
Author:Graeme Wood
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“30 Days of Ramadan (Sufi Sonnet) On the 1st day of Ramadan I say to thee, celebration of Ramadan is celebration of rahmat. On the 2nd day of Ramadan I say to thee, the greatest iftar is to lift up another. On the 3rd day of Ramadan I say to thee, kindness makes moments holy, not date and time. On the 4th day I say to thee, till we renounce apathy, refusing 'interest' counts for nothing. On the 5th day of Ramadan I say to thee, helping a human is worth a hundred Hajj. On the 6th day of Ramadan I say to thee, service to humanity is service to Allah/God. On 7th I say, true mercy waits for no month. On 8th I say, mercy exclusive to month is fake mercy. 9. There is nothing uglier than happiness hoarded. 10. Light shared, is amplified, when hoarded, it's lost. 11. Breaking fast while the world starves, is no holy. 12. Dua without deeds is dua (prayer) of the dead. 13. Only kafir is the one who lacks kindness. 14. Real divinity knows no distinction of faith. 15. The opposite of sacredness is prejudice. 16. Heart is the first and final mosque. 17. Heart set on prejudice tantamount to Quran set on fire. 18. Abandon fundamentalism, and adopt tolerance. 19. What's fanatic is dead, what's tolerant is alive. 20. Tolerance is the awakening of divine desire. 21. Condemn none, convert none, for all are equal. 22. All streams spring from the human heart. 23. Reflections though vary, the sun is the same. 24. Tolerate no more bigotry to poison the world. 25. Surpass all fear, and share a date. 26. Date shared is bloodshed spared. 27. Dogma deserted is harmony harvested. 28. Ramadan is the end of fear and hatred. On the eve of Eid, I bear reminder - for one who lives with kindness, everyday is Ramadan. On Eid al-Fitr, I stand as a promise - in celebrating each other we rise human.”

ToleranceSufismIslamic QuotesMuslimsRamadanIslamic PhilosophyRamadan QuotesEid MubarakDivine PoetryMuslim Life
Book:The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology
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“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?”

PeaceForgivenessPrejudiceInterfaithIsaacReligious IntoleranceMuslimsSong Of SongsShulamiteSons Of Abraham
Book:Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters
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“From the greatest of things that Allaah can bless a worshiper with, is the light of sound correct understanding, the light of emaan in your heart. From the most significant of things that Allaah can grant a Muslim with, which is more valuable what various forms of wealth, and anything other things of this world, is true emaan, true fearing of Allaah in our lives, sincere humbleness in our acts of worship, and as such He makes you someone who is directed away from things He is not pleased with….”

QuranMuslimsSunnahSalafiIslaam
Author:Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ramzaan al Haajiree
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“A 40-year-old Muslim woman, Roshan Khatun, was killed in Bihar, India, after being tied to a pole, beaten, and forced to drink urine mixed with alcohol at the residence of a village head. Roshan Khatun visited the residence of the village head on February 25 to settle a land dispute. According to witnesses, the village head’s husband and son assaulted her by throwing her to the ground and repeatedly beating and kicking her. Acting on the head’s orders, they then tied Khatun to a pole and continued to strike her. As she was observing a Ramadan fast and became thirsty, she pleaded for water but was instead forced to drink urine mixed with alcohol.”

IndiaMuslimsRamadanBiharIndian MuslimsMuslim WomanRoshan Khatun
Author:Muslim woman forced to drink urine while fasting,tied to pole a beaten to death in India
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“To understand those who are culturally and historically different from us – rather than resorting to such labels as ‘evil empire’, ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘terrorist’ to mask our ignorance – is a matter of urgency. The greatest hubris is to ask why ‘they’ are not like ‘us’, to accept our cultural biases lazily and without question, and to frame the problem in terms of ‘what went wrong?”

HistoryMuslimsOttomans
Book:Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire
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“But why should 1299 CE be considered the founding date of the empire? – there were no famous battles, no declarations of independence or storming of a bastille. The simplest explanations are often the most convincing: that year corresponds to the years 699–700 in the Islamic calendar. By rare mathematical coincidence, the centuries turned at the same time in both the Christian and Islamic calendars. What more auspicious year to mark the founding of an empire that spanned Europe and the Middle East?”

HistoryMuslimsOttomans
Book:Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire
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“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.”

PalestineJewsMuslimsJews And Judaism In EuropeCaliphate
Book:Ô Jérusalem
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“It’s time that Islam should be redefined by the world based upon, the goodness of all the peace-loving Muslims, instead of the theoretical teachings of some books, be it Quran or the Hadith.”

LoveInspirationalPhilosophyPeaceInspiringCompassionKindnessWords Of WisdomBrainy QuotesIslamThinkersMuslimsService To MankindAct Of KindnessIslamic FaithQuran Koran
Book:The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance
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“The main problem for the Muslims to resolve is the existence of the Jewish state of Israel in the middle of the Arab-Muslim world. It constitutes a constant reminder of the weakness and deep crisis of the Islamic Umma that does not have the strength to get rid of this 'cancer' (saraṭān). The Jewish state is presented by Ḥamās as a purely religious state which is part of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy against the Muslims in particular and the whole world in general. On these grounds, all Muslims have the duty to fight the Jewish enemy.”

HamasMuslimsJewish State
Book:Muslim Palestine: The Ideology of Hamas
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“I have spent the entirety of my life stitching together costumes to make Westerners feel at ease in my presence--a massive internal compendium of cultural references and jokes and shorthand and all these alternate means of saying, Don't worry, I'm not foreign, I'm like you--and suddenly I've run out of things to wear.”

HateFearComfortPrejudiceImmigrantsWesternersMuslimsOutreachPutting At Ease
Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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“Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London Review of Books published to mark the events of September 11, 2001, Edward painted a picture of an almost fascist America where Arab and Muslim citizens were being daily terrorized by pogroms, these being instigated by men like Paul Wolfowitz who had talked of 'ending' the regimes that sheltered Al Quaeda. Again, I could hardly credit that these sentences were being produced by a cultured person, let alone printed by a civilized publication.”

PoliticsFriendshipUnited StatesFascismMuslimsArabsQuarrelSeptember 11 AttacksEdward Said2001PogromsLrbAl QuaedaPaul Wolfowitz
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“In late February 2024 I talk to a friend of mine, a Palestinian Canadian author whose debut novel, rejected by many publishers, seems to have finally found a home. He says he still doubts whether it'll actually go out into the world. But he takes some solace in the likelihood that, by next year or the year after, it won't just be Gaza that's on fire, but the whole world, so what difference does it make what one book does? We laugh, but I can't mount much of a counterargument. I know when an Arab says things like this, there's a natural impulse to believe he's talking about some great violent retribution, but I know what my friend means. A world that shrugs at one kind of slaughter has developed a terrible immunity. No atrocity is too great to shrug away now, the muscles of indifference having been sufficiently conditioned.”

WarSufferingDespairNovelistsIndifferenceWritersAtrocitiesGazaMuslimsPalestinians
Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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