I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.
Think of ISIS as a pathogen that preys on weak hosts in the Muslim world. In fact, there is something of a political law: The weaker a Muslim state, the stronger will be the presence of ISIS or like-minded groups.
I was exposed to a Muslim school, so I learnt Urdu. I was exposed to a Hindu school, so I learnt Hindi. I was exposed to a Church of England school, so I got my Senior Cambridge certificate.
I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman. The clerics took to the mosque saying that Pakistan had thrown itself outside the Muslim world and the Muslim umar by voting for a woman, that a woman had usurped a man’s place in the Islamic society.
You just don’t see Muslims being matter-of-fact Muslim. They’re always defined by their Muslim-ness. We’re either terrorists, or we’re fighting terrorists. I remember seeing ‘True Lies’ and going, ‘Why are we always the bad guys?’
We who don’t want radical Islam to spread must compete with the agents of radical Islam. I want to see what would happen if Christians, feminists and Enlightenment thinkers were to start proselytizing in the Muslim community.
I have found that whiskey is enjoyed as a refined secret pleasure in many cities – and it appears to be popular in Pakistan, as it is all over the tropical Asian world, Muslim or non-Muslim.
I’ve worked for over 11 years in the Muslim world, and the one thing that I feel like I’ve learned – who’s to say if it’s true or not true, it’s just my experience – is that men don’t like to see really strong, aggressive women in that area of the world.
My father was Muslim, and my mom is Christian, and we moved from New Orleans to Oakland, so I always had this appreciation for different cultures.
There are so many Muslim women that feel like they don’t fit society’s standard of beauty. I just wanted to tell them it’s OK to be different; being different is beautiful, too.
I cannot discriminate on the basis of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian.
I tell my brethren in Palestine: be patient and continue your blessed struggle. We did not forget you. We are still healing another wound in the Muslim nation, which is the occupation of our land by the Americans. Your battle and ours are one and the same.
I never was in the Nation of Islam… I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, ’cause it’s just me and God. You know, going to the mosque, the ritual and the tradition, it’s just not in me to do. So I don’t do it.
I’m a comedian who happens to be Muslim; my comedy stems on all forms of my identity.
People think a Muslim has to have a turban or a big beard. It’s stupid.
The wise Jewish Israeli must work with the moderate Muslim and the Christian leader of the free world against the crazy Muslims.
I was born in Iran, which has a predominantly Muslim population, and I have relatives who are devout Muslims, so I know what it means to be judged based on your appearance and what you’re wearing. But your ethnicity and your clothing do not define who you are.
Our culture is a very diverse one, and I think now it is incredibly dangerous and very wrong to persecute Muslims and say there is something wrong with being a Muslim.
When we were discussing ‘Holby City, ‘I told the producers that I wanted the Art Malik character to be honourable, and my other requirement was that he be a Muslim, because we need Muslims on TV.
Muslim views are not a monolithic blob.
Many Muslim parents are authoritarian, which leaves young men and women with limited spaces to express themselves. Self-expression and autonomy are regarded as symptoms of ‘Westernisation.’
Unbeliever is he who follows predestination even if he be Muslim, Faithful is he, if he himself is the Divine Destiny.
When Pakistan was carved out of India’s rib in 1947, it was assumed by some that Bollywood’s Muslim stars would defect to the new state and thus boost the Lahore film industry. But Lollywood did not happen.
There are some who believe that secularism and Islam are not compatible. But Muslims should show everyone that this is not the case. It’s up to them to show that you can be French and Muslim and still respect secular rules.
I don’t align myself with the West of the Muslim world. I align myself with what I perceive to be just and in accordance with my principles – the principles that I live my life by which are universal principles and that are embodied in the religion of Islam.
The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of extreme ideology. They are the godfather of all terrorist organizations. They spread it all over the world.
I wanted to cut past the polemics and experience London’s Muslim communities for myself. My first visit was to Tower Hamlets, an East London borough that is about 38% Muslim, among the highest in the U.K. As I walked down Whitechapel Road, the adhan, or call to prayer, echoed through the neighborhood.
I believe that the dysfunctional Muslim family constitutes a real threat to the very fabric of western life. It is in the family that children are groomed to practise, promote and pass on the norms of their parents’ culture.
I believe the U.S. has been way too silent on the brutality, the lack of human rights in the Muslim world for women.
Whenever some kind of mass shooting or any other kind of violent activity takes place, we kind of hold our breath until we are sure that no Muslim was involved, because we know that these incidents will be treated differently if a Muslim is involved versus if somebody of another background is involved.
I don’t care if you’re Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or whatever your religion is, when you listen to a spiritual song and you really open your heart, you can feel it. You can feel the message of it. Just a simple story.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s declaration of war against the United States is real, and the Obama Administration is again asleep at the wheel, continuing a policy of self-destruction.
I am not against Muslim schools. But as I believe in integration, I think we would be better off overall if we did not have denominational schools at all.
I consider personally the election of Barack Hussein Obama to have very great symbolic meaning. A Muslim and a Christian name – so in his name there is a synthesis, although people from time to time want to overlook that, and they do it intentionally.
Paradise lies at the feet of the mother. So how can a Chechen, a Muslim, violate the rights of women?
I loved wrestling, and I wanted to go out and entertain people and all that stuff, so I get trained, and when they decided, ‘Hey, you’re ready for a match, and you’ve got to start thinking about a character,’ I was thinking this guy and this guy, and they go, ‘No, no, no – you’re a Muslim. You’ve got to be a bad guy.’
I’m a proud Muslim. I’m proud to have a Pakistani origin. And I want this country to accept me. I want to bring to light the fact that we are all the same.
I beg Osama to stop warring. He is a Muslim, and Islam means peace. Nobody wins in a war… I wish I were tapped in the problem about Iraq. I knew Saddam enough that I could have talked him into surrendering. But it’s too late.
In 1988, my mother led a nationwide election campaign, wrote a bestselling book, had her first child, and became the youngest and first female prime minister of the Muslim world. All in one year! For her detractors, this wasn’t good enough. She was unacceptable because she was a woman.
As a British Muslim, I am no stranger to prejudice. I know what it’s like to be discriminated against just because of your background or religion.
The hatred Muslim extremists feel against the West feeds on certain conflicts in the world.
We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.
If you woke up this morning and you are breathing, and you are Muslim, then you are political. You have no choice but to be political in a country that has politicized you and politicized your religion.
Any Westerner can now buy a Koran for a dollar and burn it, while any Muslim with a platform can transform that act into a fighting offense. As passions rise on both sides of the divide, Western provocateurs and Islamist hotheads have found each other, as confrontations occur with increasing frequency.
Muslim moderates, wherever they are, must be given every tool necessary to win a war of ideas with their co-religionists. Otherwise, we will have to win some very terrible wars in the future.
I am very grateful to our Muslim population. One of the things we’ve been doing is stepping up our inter-faith dialogue with the Muslim population. And I think that helped very much in their support for me.
Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, a lot of the roles that I am offered are of Muslim characters, maybe because I looked a certain way in ‘Neerja.’ But I am actually Parsi.
I want to change how people perceived me when I came over here, change how the people perceive South-East Asians or Middle Eastern or Muslim or Hindu or whatever their identity is. I want them to just let that go and treat the performer as a performer.
