Never forget your dialogue with God, it is your strength.

Intellect is a part of a good faith. Intellect is the light, the heart is the direction.

Feeling sympathy and searching for explanations isn't the same as believing that the violence is justified.

I opposed the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I read the book and took a critical distance. I did not think The Satanic Verses is a blasphemous book. I did not consider the book as being a great read, but as an intellectual I read, I assess, and I respond. I make a difference between true freedom of expression to which we owe a response and provocation, which we ignore.

The message of Islam asks you to be intellectually, spiritually, socially, and politically independent

Having traveled a lot and met people from different horizons it makes you more humble and ready to listen.

Fear and its accompanying emotional reactions have become part of the public mindset. Such reactions, while often legitimate, are also being exploited with increasing frequency for political ends.