Quotes About Extremism

Rockets fired by the Taliban generally aren't guided.

You know, if I were an - if I were a Taliban, I'd say, 'What did al-Qaida ever do for me except get me kicked out of Afghanistan?'

Without U.S. forces in the country, there is a strong possibility Afghanistan could host a reinvigorated Taliban allied to a reinvigorated al Qaeda.

I've dealt with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The condition that the Taliban part with al Qaeda is not just a condition, it is an objective. We must convince them that al Qaeda ideology and dogma will not help them.

Progressives know there is something very wrong when a nation divided politically has one major network operating as a propaganda arm of the Republican Party and 90 percent of talk radio is dominated by right-wing extremists.

One of the reasons I think the ultra right-wing has such power in this country is that no one talks out.

It was in this atmosphere of national trauma, political extremism, violent conflict and revolutionary upheaval that Nazism was born.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable.

As for the second notion, the idea that we could lose our freedom by succumbing to a wave of religious hysteria, I am sorry to say that I consider it possible. I hope that it is not probable. But there is a latent deep strain of religious fanaticism in this our culture; it is rooted in our history

A heroin (or opiate) diet seems to "solve" sex problems in the same way this meatless diet does: by removing sex entirely. This is analogous to Jonathan Swift's famous solution to the barefooted condition of the poor in Ireland (cutting off their feet). It will recommend itself only to those who have lost all faith and hope that a real solution is possible.

Jon glanced at his bedroom again. Nothing moved within the black rectangle framed by the doors. "Al-Qaeda." Pike nodded. "Listen, so you know, just because some idiot sells this crap doesn't mean it's going to terrorists. All-American morons turn grenades into paperweights, and RPGs into lamps." "The woman doesn't care about morons. She's been trying to contact an FTO." FTO. Foreign terrorist organization. Jon

What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.

It is not only violent terrorists who induce fear as a means of communication. Intellectual terrorists are equally vile. Intellectual terrorists are emotional extortionists. These terrorists, who are often racists, sexists, classists, or religious bigots, employ the language of fear. They generalize and essentialize a people, reducing them to a phenomenon. They incite fear and terror toward their victims and force the victims into a horrified silence.

Muslim leaders should ask themselves what exactly their relationship is to a political movement that encourages young men to kill and maim on religious grounds.

No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.

There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism.

Radical Muslims fly planes into buildings. Radical Christians kill abortion doctors. Radical Atheists write books.

Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion

Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.

In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise.

They have hijacked my religion.

What I'm saying in my books boils down to this: Mine religion for what is good and avoid what is deleterious. Don't condemn people who need it. Be very careful when that need becomes fanatical.

Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else's death.