Ayaan Hirsi Ali

In April 2006, a Dutch court ordered that I leave my safe-home that I was renting from the State. The judge concluded that my neighbors had a right to argue that they felt unsafe because of my presence in the building.

I think of Canada, first and foremost, in terms of space. The amount of space available is breathtaking.

If we don't take effective measures now, the Netherlands could be torn between two extreme rights.

The people who believe themselves to be on the left, and who defend the agents of Islam in the name of tolerance and culture, are being rightwing. Not just rightwing. Extreme rightwing. I don't understand how you can be so upset about the Christian right and just ignore the Islamic right. I'm talking about equality.

The liberal psyche wants to protect minorities, to apologize for imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and the appalling treatment of black people during the civil rights movement. At the same time, they want to continue to defend the rights of individuals.

When I was with the Labor Party, I'd get into trouble because the party bosses determined that some of what I wrote, or proposed to write about, wasn't conducive to their policies or to electoral success.

There are some mosques with facilities for women; it's usually a back room with a back-door entrance.

Over the course of my life, I have made many transitions - most of them taking me further away from my Somali roots and steadily toward the enlightened mentality of Western democracy.

Christians - at least Christians in a liberal democracy - have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state.

I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate.

Liberal capitalism is not perfect, but compared to the other 'isms,' it's far superior.

In 1985 as a teenager in Kenya, I was an adamant member of the Muslim Brotherhood.