Bassam Tibi Quotes

“A conflict of values is not a misunderstanding. Islamic orthodoxy and the German constitution are not compatible.”

“A lot of people don't know if Denmark is a country or a cheese.”

“Accusing somebody of racism is a very effective weapon in Germany. Islamists know this: As soon as you accuse someone of demonizing Islam, then the European side backs down.”

“Almost 20 percent of the people living in Germany today have a foreign background. The problem is that Germany can't really offer foreigners an identity because the Germans hardly have a national identity themselves. That is certainly a result of Auschwitz.”

“America's strength is that it is capable of accepting people into its communities.”

“I myself am Muslim and I stand on the side of an open society.”

“In Germany representatives of the Islamic communities try to hijack children who are born here, along with the entire Islamic community, to prevent them from being influenced by the society which has taken them in. Children born here are like blank sheets on which you can write European or Islamic texts. Muslim representatives want to raise their children as if they don't even live in Europe.”

“In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination.”

“Muslims have to give up three things if they want to become Europeans: They have to bid farewell to the idea of converting others, and renounce the Jihad. The third thing they need to give up is the Shariah, which is the Islamic legal system.”

“Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism.”

“Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn't just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn't have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance.”

“The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon.”

“The Jihad is not just a way of testing yourself but also means using violence to spread Islam.”

“The weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged.”

“Unlike multiculturalism, cultural pluralism doesn't just mean diversity but also togetherness – primarily the understanding of the rules of the game – the European values structure.”

“In Europe, Muslims find themselves in the opposite position: they are the minority, but they are offered the equality of citizens. The acceptance of reason-based knowledge by Muslims would for them smooth the way to secular democracy, human rights, peace among democratic nations and above all cultural-religious pluralism.

If Muslim migrants embrace these values and the related rules, it matters little whether Muslims constitute a minority or a majority. Some leaders of the Islamic diaspora are not favorable to this embracing and make the accusation of Islamophobia every time the shari’a is rejected.

This accusation becomes an instrument for deterring any call for change and for incriminating any rational criticism. A call for an embracing of cultural modernity as a platform of peace between civilizations becomes in this perception an expression of Islamophobia.”