We have to start with the little babies who are born now, socialize them in freedom and critical thinking. We don't have to throw away their faith. People confuse the two, thinking if you are enlightened that means apostasy. It doesn't.

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

My conscience is informed by reason. It's like Kant's categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.

I'd love to go and visit the Mosque in Mecca again, just for the sheer beauty of it, not for God - much the way a non-Catholic might go to Vatican City because of the beauty of the buildings and the artifacts.

I want people to emphasize life before death as opposed to life after death.

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

European children are educated in a narrative of human tolerance every day, and if you want to be sure to prevent a backlash, you should at least think of bringing Muslim children and teenagers into the fold of that narrative of tolerance.