Tariq Quotes

The universe is pregnant with signs that recall the presence of the Creator. ~ Tariq Ramadan

There is nothing more Islamic than critical thinking. ~ Tariq Ramadan

If religious people deny paradise to their opponents or to 'non-believers,' atheists would likewise seek to eliminate 'dangerous' believers with their 'childish' ways and their heads in the clouds. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Why question what Froi of Lumatere was doing here?' he asked.' When you should be questioning what would have happened to Charyn if he hadn't been here. Who else would have saved Gargarin of Abroi from the street lords? ... 'Who would have saved Quintana of Charyn from hanging? Who would have rescued her from Tariq of Lascow's compound? Who would have sent her to a safe place to birth the cursebreaker? Blah, blah, blah. I'm bored now,' Finnikin said, looking around. ~ Melina Marchetta

This simple truth is the essence of my message to Muslims throughout the world: know who you are, who you want to be, and start talking and working with whom you are not. Find common values and build with fellow citizens a society based on diversity and equality. ~ Tariq Ramadan

I think many thinkers and activists, even in the Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood, and the people who left the Muslim Brotherhood to follow Abou el-Fatouh, these people do have an understanding that the relationship between religion and the state must be re-thought and re-assessed. They're not going to use the concept of secularism in any straightforward way, because the concept of secularism is still far too loaded in that part of the world. ~ Tariq Ramadan

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. ~ Tariq Ramadan

There are in you two qualities that God loves: clemency [al-hilm] and forbearance [al-ana, "nobleness," "tolerance"]. ~ Tariq Ramadan

To dissociate politicians from capitalists is slightly disingenuous, to put it mildly. U.S. lawmakers are competitive and auction themselves to the highest bidder via the lobby system. ~ Tariq Ali

I don't regret what I did in the Sixties. I was young and took myself terribly seriously. In the Seventies, I spent too much time in inner-party factional disputes. ~ Tariq Ali

In my eyes, a patriot is little more than an international blackleg. ~ Tariq Ali

I have an emotional attachment with Katihar. ~ Tariq Anwar

Do not respond to attacks with attacks. Respond with Mercy & Respect ~ Tariq Ramadan

Proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician's spinal cord into bright yellow jelly. ~ Tariq Ali

Emancipation can only come from within; it cannot be dictated by someone else. A law banning the wearing of headscarves changes nothing, except perhaps external appearance. Naturally, Islamic feminism must also include the right to education, to work and the freedom to select one's own husband. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Unfortunately there are some trends that are changing this but you don't have for example as strict and narrow understanding of the relationship between men and women. And then there is the philosophy we have to extract in the relationship between text and culture. ~ Tariq Ramadan

You can be a very charitable capitalist. Like [Nicola] Sarkozy was saying, we have to 'moralise capitalism', which for me is a contradiction in terms. ~ Tariq Ramadan

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. ~ Tariq Ramadan

We have to watch the world, and watch ourselves, with the humility of those who know, in the very depths of their being, that learning to become human is a process that never ends. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The point for me is people who are atheists or are coming from different religious traditions; they are coming from their own sources and specific roots. We should analyze these. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The U.S. is telling the Northern Alliance to kill Taliban prisoners. It's totally a breach of all the known conventions of war. Western television networks aren't showing this, but Arab networks are showing how prisoners are being killed and what's being done to them. Instead, we're shown scenes that are deliberately created for the Western media: a few women without the veil, a woman reading the news on Kabul television, and 150 people cheering. ~ Tariq Ali

It is a great gift to find lasting love - one that gives for every bit it takes. ~ Renee Ahdieh

You are the best, I accept, now leave attitude. ~ Muhammad Tariq Majeed

Young women and men who joined the far-left groups did so for the best of reasons. They wanted to change the world. Many fought against the stifling atmosphere in many groups. ~ Tariq Ali

The genealogy of fictional characters can become an obsession, like train-spotting, and should be firmly resisted. ~ Tariq Ali

People are increasingly beginning to feel that democracy itself is being destroyed by this latest phase of globalization and that politics doesn't matter because it changes nothing. ~ Tariq Ali

To Muslims, I repeat that Islam is a great and noble religion but that all Muslims and Muslim majority societies did not in the past and do not now live up to this nobleness: critical reflection is required about faithfulness to our principles, our outlook on others, on cultures, freedom, the situation of women, and so on. Our contradictions and ambiguities are countless. To Westerners, I similarly repeat that the undeniable achievements of freedom and democracy should not make us forget murderous "civilizing missions," colonization, the destructive economic order, racism, discrimination, acquiescent relations with the worst dictatorships, and other failings. Our contradictions and ambiguities are countless. I am equally demanding and rigorous with both universes. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The heathen could only be eliminated as a force if their culture was completely erased. ~ Tariq Ali

The rich stick together; the poor and the marginalised are thrown together. ~ Tariq Ramadan

If people who cherish freedom, who know the importance of mutual respect and are aware of the imperative necessity to establish a constructive and critical debate, if these people are not ready to speak out, to be more committed and visible, then we can expect sad, painful tomorrows. The choice is ours. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Humility is my table, respect is my garment, empathy is my food and curiosity is my drink. As for love, it has a thousand names and is by my side at every window. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The "coalition against terrorism" means the United States. It does not wish anyone else to interfere with its strategy. ~ Tariq Ali

In every twenty-four hours there is always one which is full of anguish and self-pity and confusion and the desire to see other faces, but an hour passes quickly enough. ~ Tariq Ali

As long as the Pentagon bankrolls the Pakistan army to fight its wars, and NATO troops remain in Afghanistan, there will be quarrels, charges of infidelity, a reduction in the household allowance, perhaps a separation - but a divorce? Never. ~ Tariq Ali

The desert is often the locus of prophecies because it naturally offers to the human gaze the horizons of the infinite. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Fasting is, first and foremost, an exercise for identifying and managing adversity in all its forms. With faith, in full conscience, fasting calls women and men to an extra degree of self-awareness. ~ Tariq Ramadan

It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights. ~ Tariq Ali

I do it for the girls."

"What girls?"

He smirked. "They think it's sexy."

"It's not."

"No?"

"I assure you."

"Not sexy?"

"You look khila, like a half-wit."

"That hurts," he said.

"What girls anyway?"

"You're jealous."

"I'm indifferently curious."

"You can't be both." He took another drag and squinted through the smoke. "I'll bet they're talking about us now."

In Laila's head, Mammy's voice rang out. Like a mynah bird in your hands. Slacken your grip and away it flies. Guilt bore its teeth into her. Then Laila shut off Mammy's voice. Instead, she savored the way Tariq had said us. How thrilling, how conspiratorial, it sounded coming from him. And how reassuring to hear him say it like that - casually, naturally. Us. It acknowledged their connection, crystallized it.

"And what are they saying?"

"That we're canoeing down the River of Sin," he said.

"Eating a slice of Impiety Cake."

"Riding the Rickshaw of Wickedness?" Laila chimed in.

"Making Sacrilege Qurma."

They both laughed. Then Tariq remarked that her hair was getting longer. "It's nice," he said.

Laila hoped she wasn't blushing. "You changed the subject."

"From what?"

"The empty-headed girls who think you're sexy."

"You know."

"Know what?"

"That I only ~ Khaled Hosseini

51% of the French people - who are not very religious - were thinking that what "Charlie Hebdo" did was unwise. They aren't asking for a law to prevent Charlie Hebdo from publishing caricatures, but they are calling on its editors to be a bit more sensible. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The challenge for Muslims in America is to respect the fears of ordinary people while resisting the exploitation of those fears by political parties, lobbies and sectors of the media. To meet this challenge, Muslims must reassess their own involvement, behavior and contributions in American society. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Still I have been invited I don't know how many times to Turkey, where Turkey has been following very quickly in the footsteps of what is sometimes referred to as the movement of cyber-dissidents. They have been training young people and also encouraging them to come into contact with western Muslims. ~ Tariq Ramadan

A storm swept the world in 1968. It started in Vietnam, then blew across Asia, crossing the sea and the mountains to Europe and beyond. A brutal war waged by the U.S. against a poor southeast Asian country was seen every night on television. ~ Tariq Ali

Islam has no problem with women, but Muslims do clearly appear to have serious problems with them ~ Tariq Ramadan

To be more precise, it's ethics and liberation, and as a consequence there is an ethics of liberation. ~ Tariq Ramadan

In Ramadan, you should eat less and think more. ~ Tariq Ramadan

History, when they do it, is ancient history, and they sensationalize even that. Contemporary history is virtually ignored on television. ~ Tariq Ali

Brothers always. Balthazar is with us too. We make this work,' Finnikin said fiercely. 'We bring peace to these kingdoms. We deserve it. Our women do. All of us have lost too much, Froi. We've lost the joy of being children. Let's not take that from Jasmina and Tariq and those who come after them ~ Melina Marchetta

When a man and woman have sexual relations, who gets the
most out of the deal? The man, or the woman? Since we live in a society
full of tricks, the man thinks he gets more out of the encounter.
But what do men really get out of it? The reality is that women have
the potential to get more out of it than the man, especially if the
man's seeds have accumulated a certain amount of value. ~ Tariq Nasheed

Just take Germany and the suffering of Jews during and after the Second World War. It would be legal to ridicule and to laugh at this suffering, but since it was such a trauma on the European conscience, no one is going to do it. It is an open scar, an open wound, an open reality. ~ Tariq Ramadan

I love you, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran. There is nothing I would not do for you. Nothing I would not consider if it meant keeping you safe. The world itself should fear me if it stands between us. ~ Renee Ahdieh

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

I am fully aware of the concept of political revolutions. After all, that is what we hoped might happen in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, but what actually happened was capitalist restoration. ~ Tariq Ali

North-South imbalances and the exploitation of men and raw materials, combined with the resignation of the peoples of the North, produce a much more devastating violence than that of armed groups, even if the latter are spectacular. ~ Tariq Ramadan

That natural disasters are required to provide Americans with a glimpse of reality in their own country is an indication of the deep rot infecting the official political culture. ~ Tariq Ali

The hostility between India and Pakistan has become a habit to which both the elites have become addicted. Any attempt towards a rational solution to real problems is denounced by chauvinists on both sides. ~ Tariq Ali

Being Muslim has become synonymous with pointed questions, with tension and mistrust, even with conflict. It has become a global phenomenon with profound consequences for inter-communal relations, political rhetoric and policies at the local, regional, national and international level. ~ Tariq Ramadan

As a candidate, Obama projected himself as a new Reagan, above narrow party politics. He wanted to please all but has ended up annoying many. ~ Tariq Ali

The sobbing of the weak today is the sobbing of the victims of neoliberal policies. They consist of billions of people all over the world. ~ Tariq Ali

We fail when we try to give simple answers to complicated problems. ~ Tariq Ramadan

The problem, once again, as in all sciences is the attitude of the mind that is dealing with whatever field. The problem is not philosophy but the lack of intellectual humility. It is when reason becomes arrogant that we lose track. But intellectual humility with science: this is spirituality - this is the way we are with God. So we should not be scared and we must reconcile ourselves. ~ Tariq Ramadan

[Human] wisdom is the believer's lost belonging; he is the most worthy of it wherever he finds it. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Islam came to teach us that there is no faith without intelligence and here we are: destroying our intelligence in the name of faith. ~ Tariq Ramadan

We need to deal with three things that are important: first, we need a very deep reconsideration of how we are dealing with the economy. Second, there must be a very deep reconsideration of our way of life. We cannot simply adopt American-style consumer culture. To Islamize that is to de-Islamize Islam.Thirdly, it is important for us to understand the economy and the environment are common challenges for everyone. This is where the singularity of Islamic principles needs to join the universal values that we share with others. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Ralph Miliband was a socialist intellectual of great integrity. He belonged to a generation of socialists formed by the Russian revolution and the Second World War, a generation that dominated left-wing politics for almost a century. ~ Tariq Ali

Proud to be a Muslim isn't a stamp you have on your heart, it's a light you have in your heart. ~ Tariq Ramadan

To be courageous is to be a voice for the voiceless ~ Tariq Ramadan

Muhammad particularly loved cats, but, more generally, he constantly made his Companions aware of the need to respect all animal species. He ~ Tariq Ramadan

Jihadists are acting against the interests of every single country. ~ Tariq Ramadan

We need to challenge the dominant culture: by ethics, principles and values. ~ Tariq Ramadan

These were not the words of a madman. For the first time, Tariq saw what Shahrzad saw when she looked at Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. He saw a boy. Who loved a girl. More than anything in the world. And he hated him all the more for it. ~ Renee Ahdieh

We want to tell people how great Islam is yet we are not great Muslims. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Unlike his sometime rival Tariq Ramadan, who'd been tainted by his old Trotskyite connections, Ben Abbes had kept his distance from the anticapitalist left. He understood that the pro-growth right had won the "war of ideas," that young people today had become entrepreneurs, and that no one saw any alternative to the free market. But his real stroke of genius was to grasp that elections would no longer be about the economy but about values, and that here, too, the right was about to win the "war of ideas" without a fight. ~ Michel Houellebecq

A true teacher doesn't teach you to think like him, but to think without him. ~ Tariq Ramadan

I was leaning over him when he died. My hands on his chest. My palms felt his last breath move inside him. His chest rose and fell and then kept falling, like it could carry us both straight down through the earth.
I didn't stop pushing, but I knew. Right then. I was breathing hard myself. My lungs probably took int he last air Tariq ever exhaled. It can't possibly be in me anymore, but it feels like it is. Like it's weighing heavy on my chest with every breath I take, even now. ~ Kekla Magoon

It's a total failure of the Western imagination that the only enemy they can see is Adolph Hitler. ~ Tariq Ali

Religious symbols should be visible in public space, in a dignified and non-provocative manner. Christmas trees here, Jewish menorahs there and, further along, a minaret - these symbols represent human life in all its diversity. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Craig can't bear it. He opens his eyes, looks over to Tariq, who has tears in his own eyes. He mimes writing. Tariq scrambles for a marker and some paper. He runs over to Craig. All the things Craig has to say boil down to the essential ...
I'M GAY, MOM. I'M GAY.
Craig rotates his and Harry's bodies so he's facing his mother. Then he holds up his shaky sign. He sees her eyes as she understands it. ~ David Levithan

I think we are making a mistake, a very big mistake if we look at what we call the Arab Awakening only by looking at the whole dynamics in political and not in economic terms. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Faith must recognize the autonomy of reason and its ability to produce a rational, secular ethics. By the same criterion, reason must accept that it is legitimate for the heart, consciousness and faith to believe in an order and ends thar exist prior to its observation, discoveries and hypotheses. Once the distinction between the realms of faith and reason, and religion and science, has been accepted, it is therefore futile to debate, and still less to dispute, the hierarchy of first truths or the nature of the authority granted to their methods and their references. ~ Tariq Ramadan

I keep on repeating something told to me by an American psychologist: "When you are making a joke about someone and you are the only one to laugh, it is not a joke. It is a joke only for yourself." If people are making a joke they have the right to laugh at me but I will ignore them. Ignoring doesn't mean that you don't understand. You understand it so much that you don't want to react. ~ Tariq Ramadan

What I'm advocating is an intellectual revolution - it's a different mindset concerning the ethical benchmarks by which we live. ~ Tariq Ramadan

You're asking me how not to doubt. Good question.My answer is, you can't. This is life ~ Tariq Ramadan

When terrorism is directly aiming at Western countries, it is automatically and abnormally enlarged in order to instill emotions and fear. However, when attacks happen in the Middle East, is it conveniently downplayed and less talked about. Unless they would benefit more from a heavy coverage. ~ Tariq Ramadan

We were constantly appealing for funds from readers when I edited 'The Black Dwarf' in 1968-69. ~ Tariq Ali

'Theogony' should be read before the great Homeric epics because it gives an account of the cosmology that is taken for granted by Homer. It does for paganism what the Old Testament attempted to do for monotheism. ~ Tariq Ali

The universality of Islam is not uniformity, it is unity with diversity. ~ Tariq Ramadan

To seventy excuses for him. If you cannot find any, convince yourselves that it is an excuse you do not know.13 ~ Tariq Ramadan

We must master our egoism, and through this mastery, step outside ourselves and educate ourselves in giving. Fasting requires that we rediscover all that is alive around us, and reconcile ourselves with our environment. ~ Tariq Ramadan

What you need to do is protect the structures and dynamics that are helping the people choose. The only thing that we can do is to respect the will of the people when it comes to majority processes. It is not for us to impose a model, it is not for us to impose answers to some critical questions. ~ Tariq Ramadan

What we also need to have a discussion on the philosophy of art: so we must ask what is it that we want in the first place? Is it just about saying and doing whatever you want, or is it about something more? We should let the artist be free, but we must also question how exactly he deals with freedom. Is it arts for elevation or arts for destruction? Is there dignity in the process? ~ Tariq Ramadan

[Taken from a BBC documentary]
Tariq was born in Lahore, now in Pakistan, then part of British-ruled India, in 1943. A Catholic school education did nothing to shake his life-long atheism, which he shared with his communist parents. ~ Tariq Ali

Nevertheless, I have no political agenda whatsoever, even though some might think the contrary. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Culture constitutes an essential element of social and political liberation. As people rise up across the Middle East and North Africa, the diversity of their cultures is not only the means but also the ultimate goal of their liberation and their freedom. ~ Tariq Ramadan

In January 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations in response to Cuban nationalisation of U.S.-owned sugar plantations, banks and businesses. ~ Tariq Ali

I do not accept the right of big powers to change governments as and when it affects their interests. ~ Tariq Ali

The song "Dream a Little Dream of Me" comes on Tariq's playlist, which makes Harry think of the movie Beautiful Thing, as Tariq no doubt knew it would. Harry can feel Craig smile under his lips, and knows he must be sharing the same thought. As confirmation, Harry feels Craig's finger on his back, tracing the letter B, then T. They start to shuffle and slow-dance. It feels good to move their legs. ~ David Levithan

Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, but Arab culture is not the culture of Islam. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Part of the French political class is realising that there is are large number of Muslim people coming from the ghettos who want to make themselves heard, politically, especially about foreign policy issues. Its electoral weight can bring back to the forefront the Palestinian issue. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Shaking up whole region means that Israel needs the US for its safety and military camps are "flourishing" everywhere in the Middle East. It has been said that [Barack] Obama is less interested in the Middle East. I don't think so. This mess has been created and maintained. Maybe the US is pretending to be less interested, however, it allows them to take their power back when it comes to security. ~ Tariq Ramadan

Man is certainly free, but he is responsible for this freedom before God as before men. This responsibility is inevitably moral. In order of this morality, to be free is to protect the freedom of others and their dignities. ~ Tariq Ramadan