Hesham Qandil Quotes

I'm afraid that a lot of things that people believe about Islam are totally different from the religion that most of us recognize. I was really fortunate that I got to know Islam before it became a headline.

We don't understand enough about the Islam religion and Muslim world.

Many American Muslims are peaceful and define jihad primarily as an internal struggle to improve.

They do not understand Islam, and I think that is one area where perhaps I hope one day I will play a role in actually making people understand what we perceive Islam to be.

Beside all this I think there was something personal, being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it's so little known about it which surprised me.

I'm very proud to be of Muslim faith.

Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn't follow the great traditions of Islam. They've hijacked a great religion.

Growing up, I came to love Egypt and respect Islam, but I never thought to go beyond the surface. Back in Canada, many of my father's Egyptian friends questioned his decision not to raise his only child more strictly in the faith. I was not taught salat, the Muslim ritual of prayer, nor did I study Arabic.

I consider myself to have been formed by a lot of the locutions and aesthetics and principles of the Muslim way of life, and those are an important part of my childhood and my identity.

I was always interested in going deeply into the life of the Prophet.

I made the film to bring the story of Islam, the story of 700 million of people, to the West.

The Council of Islamic Affairs is doing a great service to the world by promoting a greater understanding in America of the rich heritage of the Islamic peoples and their hopes and aspirations for the future.

I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.

The name Muhammad is the most common name in the world. In all the countries around the world - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon - there are more Muhammads than anything else. When I joined the Nation of Islam and became a Muslim, they gave me the most famous name because I was the champ.

The human family is a great one, and the Muslim branch is certainly worth knowing.

My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.

There's a general ignorance about how Muslims live and what Muslims believe.

Muslims have their own traditions. The important point to bear in mind is that the whole Muslim tradition is totally and unequivocally opposed to autocratic and oppressive government. This is very, very clear.

The great majority of us are Muslims. We follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him). We are members of the brotherhood of Islam in which all are equal in rights, dignity and self-respect. Consequently, we have a special and a very deep sense of unity. But make no mistake: Pakistan is not a theocracy or anything like it.

Actually we are Muslims because we believe in the religion of Islam.

I don't know that Islam has ever been a subject of anything that I've written. I think Muslims have often been, but those are two very different things.

I was never a practicing Muslim. But I do consider myself a Muslim.

Every individual Moslem is brought up to believe that Islam is perfect and the Prophet is infallible.

Arabic is the language of Islam, but Arabic culture is not the culture of Islam.

The pursuit of knowledge is a divine commandment for every Moslem.