Bill Maher Quotes

The suicide-bombing community is not absolutely 100 percent religious, but it is pretty nearly 100 percent religious.

I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even to the deeply religious - that religious fanaticism is an extremely dangerous deranger of otherwise sane and goodhearted people.

Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.

All extremists derive from one pool. This extreme mind-set is nurtured by religious rhetoric that needs to be reformed.

Terrorism and extremism bear different names and labels. It uses diverse causes. But in each case, it is driven by distortion of religion and a misguided belief in its power to succeed.

Terrorists convince thousands of people to kill themselves in the name of God. I can't convince two of my friends to help me move.

When 9/11 hit, the second thing I said to myself was, 'This really is what religious people do.' Those people flying the plane were very good, very pious, truly faithful believers. There's no other way to paint them. Of course, they are extremists by definition, but they certainly aren't going against Islam in any real way.

Islam has been badly used by a certain ideology.

I had been fascinated with Islam since college - particularly how it could inspire such fervor in our modern age and move a significant number of its followers to horrific acts of violence. That invisible hand moved me to study more and more about Islam.

Religion doesn't make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.

Jewish extremism and Islamic fanaticism fed each other.

Verses of the Koran and of the Prophet are being isolated and used to justify violence.

Obstinacy in religious understanding leads to backwardness as in Muslims’, prevalence of violence and intolerance.

What is really happening here is the radicalization of the Moslems throughout the world.

If you are a Christian, you are in danger. Even if you are an atheist, you are in danger, and if you decide to convert to Islam, this will not save you, either, because traditional Islam is inimical to the conditions and objectives set by them [the terrorists]. If you are prepared to become a most radical Islamist and are prepared to circumcise yourself, I invite you to come to Moscow. I will recommend having the operation done in such a way that nothing will grow for you there anymore.

Over the course of history many religions have fallen victim to violent interpretations.

When Muslims enter a mosque, for example, and blow it up, or go and behead people while reading the Koran --- these people believe their Islam permits this. You talk about the war on terror. The only way we can overcome these terrorists is with ideology. We Muslims must show the Muslim terrorists that their way is wrong. We must draw the line.

Conversion to Islam substantially increases the probability of a person's involvement in terrorism.

Muslims of the world be reasonable. What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?

It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.

We look to them [Islamic leaders] to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilize and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn, clearly and unconditionally, the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people. We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs and enter a martyr's reward. We need to hear Muslims expressing their outrage and condemning such evil.

Religion has both bolstered and undermined stable self-government. It has advanced political reform and human rights, but also induced irrationality, extremism, and terrorism.

The real problem is that Saudi Arabia is bogged down by deep-rooted Islamic extremism in most schools and mosques, which have become breeding grounds for terrorists. We cannot solve the terrorism problem as long as it is endemic to our educational and religious institutions. .

I would like to regard the Inquisition as an aberration as far as Christian history is concerned. And I think the Taliban would be an aberration as far as contemporary Muslim civilization is concerned

Radical extremists have tried to use Islam as a cause for attacks on America. As I have stated before, they are not true followers of Islam. In my view they are simply terrorists, much like the so-called "Christians" of the white supremacy groups.