What I find daunting always is to stand on a stage and talk to people, whether they agree with me or not.

People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no: I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.

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

...Bear true witness, even if it be against yourselves, your parents or your family.

I grew up in Somalia, in Saudi Arabia, in Ethiopia, and in Kenya. I came to Europe in 1992, when I was 22, and became a member of Parliament in Holland.

Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.

It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others.