The people who believe themselves to be on the left, and who defend the agents of Islam in the name of tolerance and culture, are being rightwing. Not just rightwing. Extreme rightwing. I don't understand how you can be so upset about the Christian right and just ignore the Islamic right. I'm talking about equality.

However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.

I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate.

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

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.

You have to let individuals make their own choices and respect that, even if it's your own child. And that's what was taken away from me. My father passed away thinking I still had to go back to his way of believing.

I am grateful to my father for sending me to school, and that we moved from Somalia to Kenya, where I learned English.