I wanted to understand. I'm not here to support one, but I am here to criticize all, on a principled position. I very much value the position of counter power. I think this is where ethics should be, in front of power as I said in Radical Reform. The power of counter-power is very important.

When I came here [to Malaysia] I heard that there is a problem with the concept of pluralism whereby pluralism is understood in a very narrow way, which I think is wrong. This is not to diminish your sense of truth in what you believe but to acknowledge the fact that we live in a world where we need to deal with pluralism. It's a fact.

Your heart is the center of humility, your mind could be the source of arrogance.

We have to free the Muslim mind from the obsession with limits and rules and forgetting the path and objective. This is truly a liberating process, and for me this is Islam: liberation from the ego, and in this case liberating ourselves from the wrong understanding of the religion.

One does not always know how to express the sorrow of the soul. One does not always know how to silence the joy of the heart.

Tell me what you are doing with your suffering, and I will tell you who you are.

Compelling a woman to wear a headscarf is against Islam, and compelling her to remove it is against human rights.