I call myself a liberal - a classical liberal as in John Stuart Mill.

Let us recognize that we can no longer tolerate violent oppression of women in the name of religion and culture any more than we would tolerate violent oppression espoused by any other bully in the name of a twisted rationale.

My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been insufficiently reverent toward Islam.

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

The Christian take on Hellfire seems less dramatic than the Muslim vision, which I grew up with, but Christian magical thinking appeals to me no more than my mother's angels and djinns.

I confront the European elite's self-image as tolerant 'while under their noses women are living like slaves.

But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can't acquire knowledge.