Criticizing to destroy is easy, thinking in order to build is much more difficult to achieve

The philosophical connection between the Islamic world and the West is much closer than I thought. Doubt did not begin with Descartes. We have this construction today that the West and Islam are entirely separate worlds. This is wrong.

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

In Ramadan, you should eat less and think more.

You can't say 'I don't do politics,' because silence is a political statement.

Because ethics is fundamentally about questioning the ends, the goals and aims of our actions, we must come back to the rules and ask why. So we must return to the philosophy of law, the raison d'etre and the point of what we're asked to do. It's not easy, it's very demanding and it needs intellectual courage.

The West hasn't been naïve, it has been patronizing the South by imposing its own views on what should be done - ironically after having been so close and so supportive of dictators who were not respecting the people.