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.

In 1985 as a teenager in Kenya, I was an adamant member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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 talk about a Christianity that is enlightened enough to separate spirituality from the rest of life. Not just church and state, but knowledge and church.

Every time I went on TV I got a threat.

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 don't have much in me left for Somalia, because the country is so broken, it's not realistic to daydream about it.