I come from a world where the word 'trauma' doesn't exist, because we are too poor. I didn't have an easy life compared to the average European. But compared to the average African, it wasn't all that bad.

After the horrific massacre Wednesday at the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, perhaps the West will finally put away its legion of useless tropes trying to deny the relationship between violence and radical Islam.

I'd like Muslims to look at their religion as a set of beliefs that they can appraise critically and pick and choose from.

But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can't acquire knowledge.

Avoiding offense means that we don't accept each other as equals.

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

I don't believe in hell and heaven anymore. Or angels. I think Islam is a superstition like every other superstition. But now because it's a superstition, unlike Christianity, that hasn't been tested and hasn't gone through a process of enlightenment, I think it's a dangerous superstition.