W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

In El Paso, the people are homicidal but orthodox.

Violence is not a function of the Islamic faith.

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.

All the Abrahamic faiths are marked by violence.

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motive.

O ye who believe, Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you and let them find harshness in you.

Terrorists have hijacked our religion.

It is always unfortunate when the innocent become victims of the anger and hatred of leaders, especially in the name of religion.

Is it really true that religion makes people more kindly, generous, or loving? History tends to disprove this. The worst wars, the most vicious Inquisitions, the cruelest pogroms and persecutions, were both fomented and supported by religion.

The thing I worry about with religion isn't to do much with forgetting Christmas. It's to do with religion being angry and violent.

People who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God, and they are angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshipping God. And whether it's a Sikh temple, or a Baptist church, or a Catholic church, or a Muslim mosque - whatever it is - I just abhor this kind of violence, and it's the kind of thing that we should do something about.

In all places, and in all times, those religionists who have believed too much have been more inclined to violence and persecution than those who have believed too little.

When fundamentalism comes to kill, it can kill with the language - the Apostle James says this, not me - and even with a knife, no?

Fanaticism is the greatest threat today. Literally, the 21st century threatened by fanatics, and we have fanatics in every religion, unfortunately, and what can we do against them? Words nothing else, I'm against violence but only words.

Everybody knows that fanaticism is religion caricatured; bears, indeed, about the same relation to it that a monkey bears to a man; yet, with many, contempt of fanaticism is received as a sure sign of hostility to religion.

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.

We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty.

Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.

Terrorism is contempt for human dignity.

People who hate God... take it out on innocent people.

Absolute faith can blind you to the consequences of the actions you allow. It can tell you it's okay to drop bombs on another country, or that it's okay to hate a group of people such as homosexuals.

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

I honor religion except when it gets into shedding blood.

A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world.