Quotes from Tariq Ali

The Greek city-states politicised citizen and subject, creating institutions that were way ahead of anything in China or India. The politicians of antiquity exercised a political and military, if not economic, hegemony on the culture as a whole. The idea of democracy was first born and practised here.

I am an atheist and do not know the meaning of the 'religious pain' that is felt by believers of every cast when what they believe in is insulted.

The Lumiere brothers first exhibited moving pictures in Paris in 1896. A year later, there was a private showing at the Yildiz palace in Istanbul.

There are, of course, deeply sincere people of religion in different parts of the world who genuinely fight on the side of the poor, but they are usually in conflict with organised religion themselves.

It is as difficult to define or classify Islamic cinema as it would be a Christian, Jewish or Buddhist one.

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.

I am, in general, favourable to activism and social movements and hostile to graft and corruption.

Socially, the Cuban revolution created an education system and health service that remain the envy of much of the neo-liberal world.

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.

The only continent where social movements have led to political parties that have pushed through serious social and political reforms is in South America.

Tony Blair is a war criminal.

I've called David Cameron worse things than joker....and a former Prime Minister Tony Blair is widely referred to as a war criminal.

madrassas copying megachurch outreach tactics

Ljubav može biti i guja pritajena u obliku ogrlice i slavuj koji ne prestaje cvrkutati.

Prva ljubav možda i nije najbolja, ali je obi?no najdublja." "I najdublja i najbolja. Mora biti najbolja.

Belief! That was always a big problem. Marxism as a surrogate religion with its prophets and popes. Look where it has got us. You believe? You have no right to believe. You must not believe…

Try and understand your parents, Karl. You owe us at least that much. I know you're angry. You feel wounded. You think that Helge and I were obsessed with the Idea, that it finally imploded, and this has made you suspicious of all ideas. And yet you know full well that our Idea was not the DDR. You can make many criticisms of Marx, but to hold him responsible for our so-called socialist experiences is unfair.

Vlady smiled to himself. He was fifty-six today. What had loomed in the distance like a giant iceberg had finally caught up with him, but he had survived the encounter. He was still alive. Despite everything, he had not thrown himself under a train. He was still there and that was enough reason to celebrate.

He had chosen the SPD like one chooses a football team. There is a simple rule. If you stick with your team through bad times, there is a reward sooner or later.

Strange how for the last five hundred years the fate of The Jews had so often been tied to our own (Muslims') future. Where we suffer, they suffer. Where we prosper, they prosper. Where they are present and we are not, they fail to defend themselves and are slaughtered like sheep.It is the same story here, in al-Abdalus and in al-Quds,Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus. (A Sultan In Palermo, Islam Quintet 4, Tariq Ali, page 221, 222)

Kakva korist od bogatstva i sjaja ako u sebi osje?aš bijedu i sirotinju?

Kad mi guja izjavi ljubav, ja je objesim oko vrata.

Nastojao je osokoliti svoje slušaoce podsje?anjem da zvijezda koja nestane na jednom nebeskom svodu može na drugom ponovo zasjati.

Svakog sam mjeseca sanjala ovu avliju. Sje?aš li se sjena narova drveta pri punom mjesecu, Amira? Sje?aš li se što smo tad govorile? Ako je mjesec na našoj strani, što ?e nam onda zvijezde?