Now I think that a true liberal will always prioritize individuals over the group, will always prioritize heresy over orthodoxy, will always prioritize the dissenting voice over the status quo.

No idea is above scrutiny. No idea whatsoever. To criticize, to scrutinize and to satirize my own religion [Islam] is not Islamophobia.

There are no globalized, youth-led, grassroots social movements advocating for democratic culture across Muslim-majority societies. There is no equivalent of Al-Qaeda without the terrorism.

Does freedom of speech give the right to offend?

Once you subscribe to an ideological dogma as a solution to certain grievances, it then frames your mindset.

Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society.

After much soul searching I was able to renounce my past Islamist ideology, challenging everything I was once prepared to die for.

I believe that preventing radicalisation is far more efficient than de-radicalisation, meaning stopping someone joining is a lot easier than trying to pull someone out once they've joined.

We have to render Islamist extremism as unattractive as communism has become today.

In prison I had the opportunity to debate and discuss people that had subscribed to all forms of Islamism.

I am everything I am today, because of my past.

Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed. Kings must be managed, for men want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal.

...the power of grace can work great things in the human person, greater than we might have dared to hope...(pg.52 in The Examen Prayer).

What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?

I do catch myself driving around singing tunes, but I don't know if it's necessarily show tunes.

Find the simplest model that is not a lie is the key to better software design.

Stepping outside the comfort zone is the price I pay to find out how good I can be. If I planned on backing off every time running got difficult I would hang up my shoes and take up knitting.

A work of art can only come from the interior of man. Art is the form of the image formed upon the nerves, heart, brain and eye of man.

So in every individual the two trends, one towards personal happiness and the other unity with the rest of humanity, must contend with each other.

That's when I feel most alive, he told me once on an airplane, when I'm helping people.

I'm not one for a lot of media attention.