Karen Armstrong Quotes

I was sort of born into a Subud cult that has ties to Islam and Indonesia and Middle Eastern spiritualism. My parents were kind of trial-and-error when it came to religion.

… the growth of the political independence of Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim groups from the institutions of government has allowed them to exercise greater leverage over the state and the development of more activist political theologies.

In the Moslem East all Christian interests are inseparable. The misfortune of one does not make for the good fortune of the rest.

The Middle East was not always convulsed by sectarian bloodletting. For a long time it was a place where minorities coexisted with the Muslim Faith, inhabiting this world far more peacefully than they do today.

I’m trying to be a real Muslim, who respects others and respects the freedom of the people to choose their own religious denominations or even to not believe in God in the first place.

The genuine separation of mosque and state and the effective governance of religious institutions will facilitate better religious education and reintroduce moderate Islamic thinking...

Interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the term is not possible without putting one's own faith into parentheses.

Islam is something we can't afford any more.

We need to bear in mind that we don't have religious tests in this country, and we also need to remember that some of our best allies in the war against Islamic terrorism are Muslims.

The more religions are fixated on having a dogmatic sense of truth, the more likely they are to blow each other up. So being open to God as a creative principle could provide for a new kind of dialogue between the faiths, which I think is crucial at this time.

There are many Muslims of good will and despise this extremism as much as anyone of any other faith.

I am a believing and practising Muslim - but I am also a social democrat.

Muslims are not our enemy.

We must remember that Islam is not an enemy, and we have no war with Islam.

There is not sufficient religion in the world merely to put an end to the number of religions.

Muslim leaders around the globe have to continue working with us to decisively and unequivocally reject the hateful ideology that groups like ISIL and al Qaeda promote. To speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity.

This is why God created so many different religions: to be training grounds to make a path for every people, culture, custom, and tradition. Religions polish people to be qualified to enter the region of the original homeland. Because of humankind's many different cultural backgrounds, God sought and set the standard of comparison and has been leading the way toward one unified religious world.

Since it is no longer permissible to disparage any single faith or creed, let us start disparaging all of them... A religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Comparative religion is an admirable recipe for making people comparatively religious.

If a harmonious relationship is established amongst societies and religious beliefs in today's multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural world, then it will surely set a very good example for others.

Religion is important for humanity, but it should evolve with humanity. The first priority is to establish and develop the principle of pluralism in all religious traditions. If we, the religious leaders, cultivate a sincere pluralistic attitude, then everything will be more simple. It is good that most religious leaders are at least beginning to recognize other traditions, even though they may not approve of them. The next step is to accept that the idea of propagating religion is outdated. It no longer suits the times.

I love Christianity, Islam and many other faiths - through Hinduism.

We, as Unitarians, may feel that the world is coming our way.

If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.

Bill Maher is right to condemn religious practices that violate fundamental human rights. Religious communities must do more to counter extremist interpretations of their faith. But failing to recognize that religion is embedded in culture — and making a blanket judgment about the world’s second largest religion — is simply bigotry.