It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage.

Drinking wine and wearing trousers were nothing compared to reading the history of ideas.

I cannot emphasize enough how wrongheaded this is. Withholding criticism and ignoring differences are racism in its purest form. Yet these cultural experts fail to notice that, through their anxious avoidance of criticizing non-Western countries, they trap the people who represent these cultures in a state of backwardness. The experts may have the best of intentions, but as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

If we don't take effective measures now, the Netherlands could be torn between two extreme rights.

Muslim leaders should ask themselves what exactly their relationship is to a political movement that encourages young men to kill and maim on religious grounds.

When I was with the Labor Party, I'd get into trouble because the party bosses determined that some of what I wrote, or proposed to write about, wasn't conducive to their policies or to electoral success.

I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance.