Michael O'Brien Quotes

In the States anything dealing with religion, people go nuts, because they are nuts.

My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home - I think in those days we called them arguments - about who was right and who was wrong.

I can tell you 100 percent Pastor Jones will not burn the Quran tomorrow. There will be no Quran burning.

What has bothered and angered radical Muslims is that I'm a non-Muslim writing anything at all about Islam. But this is fiction, and I don't think Islam is above criticism or fictionalization any more so than Judaism, Christianity, Mormonism or Hinduism is.

Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.

Given the fact that most religions share basic values, it is most unfortunate that religious people can be played off against each other so easily. One possible reason for this may be that people do not know enough about other people's beliefs.

The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a Jew.

If I ever found a church that didn't believe in knocking all the other churches, I might consider joining it.

The Wahhabi movement is a form of radical Islam that people here say did not exist before in Bosnia, where Islam had co-existed with other major religions and was much softer and more liberal.

The arrogance of secular Jews regarding the ultra-Orthodox community and their attempt to impose on it a different lifestyle is inappropriate.

When I was a kid, I had zero Jewish friends. Not because I hated Jews, but because Jews don't want to live with us. And us Arabs, we don't want to live with Jews.

America doesn't have the moral authority or weight to tip the scales in this fight between moderate Islam and less tolerant Islam. Muslim communities and Muslim nations need to be leading edge of this fight.

I had to learn to navigate the political and religious currents in a state where Mormonism dominates despite not being Mormon.

Duplicity in matters of religion is not confined to Pakistan, but it hurts the most in societies where debate on religion is asphyxiated and preachers of hate have become keepers of faith.

You won't see Christians violently attacking people for criticising their religion like you do with Islam, things like the Charlie Hebdo attack.

I might spar with him, or I might teach him a few tricks, but even if there was $1 billion or £1m offered, I'd never get in the ring with another Muslim. It's against my principles.

I don't like it when religions take it to the point where they discredit all other religions, because how could one sector of people have figured it out and know that that's it? But I do think that there's so much beauty in a lot of the stories or scriptures.

I am glad that I could be a part of a film that tackles Islamophobia.

The government is opposed to all statements/speeches which divide the country on the basis of religion, caste, and creed.

Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.

All religions and cultures suffer from sources that preach hate against the 'other.' Throughout history some have, tragically, practiced what their sources preached, while some have sought to dismiss or even counteract the hateful words of their sources.

In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.

For the majority of English people there are only two religions, Roman Catholic, which is wrong, and the rest, which don't matter.

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.

Hindu fundamentalism is a contradiction in terms, since Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals; there is no such thing as a Hindu heresy. How dare a bunch of goondas shrink the soaring majesty of the Vedas and the Upanishads to the petty bigotry of their brand of identity politics?