Reza Aslan Quotes

Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

If the communist party is controlling China, they represent China.

I grew up in a dictatorship in East Africa.

On the face of it, China has won the Olympics. But it is not China that has won, but the Communist party. The Chinese people have lost.

A totalitarian power is mainly busy in keeping itself alive.

Cuba is a nation stuck in time, and the regime's complete control of businesses, the press and the Internet has kept the Cuban people from advancing and achieving their dreams.

Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people.

In Iraq during the days of Saddam, I had a government minder who followed me everywhere, reported on my activities.

But, in North Korea, it's just the opposite. There's one story. It's written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters. There, as a youth, your aptitude towards certain jobs is measured, and the rest of your life is dictated, whether you'll be a fisherman or a farmer or an opera singer.

For 73 years a totalitarian regime ruled the country. Totalitarian regime.

The greatest threat to the security of the people of North Korea comes from the government of North Korea.

That President Mohammad Khatami's policies have been blocked is the bitterest incident in the contemporary Iranian history. This means that the wishes of millions of people who voted for Khatami and called for freedom and justice have been ignored... Why should cultural activities and journalism be so risky in Iran?

Within the Russian system, everything depends on the character of those few who hold full power in their hands. The position of the individual within present-day Russia has been described as follows: far-reaching economic security by sacrificing personal liberty.

Feelings of marginalization and cries of separation are symptomatic of countries where rulers find power sweet and intoxicating, where power is coveted, and when acquired, painstakingly guarded.

Fig leaves of democratic procedure … hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship

My mind is appalled at the thought of a political party having control of all the details that go to make up the sum total of our lives. Think of it for an instant, that the party in power shall have all authority to dictate the kind of books that shall be used in our schools and universities, government officials editing, printing, and circulating our literature, histories, magazines and press, to say nothing of the thousand and one activities of life that a people engage in, in a civilized society.

You cannot chose your parents. You cannot choose your gender. And in Russia, you cannot choose your president.

Today, everybody is more or less conscious of the total failure of the Cuban revolution to produce wealth, to produce a better standard of living for the Cubans. With the exception of small radical parties, Latin Americans know that it's a brutal dictatorship and the longest in Latin American history.

When I was at university in the Fifties, Latin America was full of dictators. Trujillo was the emblematic figure because, of course, of his cruelty, corruption, extravagance, and theatricalities.

I grew up in a dictatorship in a very Catholic country.

China is a heaven compared to North Korea.

Some people criticize North Koreans and ask, 'Are they stupid? How can they believe those ridiculous things?' But I say, It doesn't matter if you're smart: if you were born in North Korea, you would be exactly like us. We don't know what freedom is. We have never enjoyed it.

The North Korean regime really can control people. I think they are the best dictator in the whole planet.

China restricts the society's freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals. Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.

He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap.