Quotations
"I believe in a secular regime in which the institutions of religion and the institutions of the state are essentially separate, meaning: (1) the government is a human institution, not a heavenly one, (2) the government is responsible for enacting and executing customary, rational laws, not sharia rulings (3) spirituality doesn't have any special privileges in the state, and (4) the government is neutral towards all religions."
"You cannot bring democracy to a country by attacking it."
"Negotiation talks are the best way to solve anything. We must replace wars and weapons with negotiations and talks."
"When there is a crisis, the first thing that gets damaged and gets harmed is democracy."
"When you face dangers and crises, civil liberties go down and security measures go up."
"The modern infrastructures that exist in the world all contribute to the advancement of human rights and democracy in the world. ... if the U.S. wants to contribute to the advancement of democracy in the Middle East, it can do that. The most important thing that the U.S. government can do is to help to solve the Arab/Israeli problem in a just way, and that is to create a Palestinian government, and the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Muslims alike, next to each other. The other thing is the reduction of the huge gap between the North and the South."
"We should put away the militaristic outlook. The U.S. should start talking about disarmament, nuclear disarmament, of the region."
"To people who live in democracies, I tell them to appreciate what they have. Don't attack democracy. Attack the governments that take advantage of democracy and try to divert democracy. Where you see a government choose policies that help the growth of fundamentalism, fight those policies. Human rights abuses are important anywhere, in Iran, in the U.S., in Israel, in Russia. It doesn't matter. We need peace."
"One of the features of a fascist regime is that it completely suppresses all civil society and creates a society with one voice, but it's only one of the characteristics of a fascist society. It's a system where you need to have a widespread political party. Culture is completely reduced to advertisements and propaganda, education is reduced to propaganda, and many other features in economy and politics. When you suppress civil society you reduce people to small particles and they become dissolved in a solution in the society. They have no characteristics of themselves, of their own."
Read more about this topic: Akbar Ganji
Famous quotes containing the word quotations:
“A book that furnishes no quotations is, me judice, no book—it is a plaything.”
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866)
“Reading any collection of a man’s quotations is like eating the ingredients that go into a stew instead of cooking them together in the pot. You eat all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then the meat. You won’t go away hungry, but it’s not quite satisfying. Only a biography, or autobiography, gives you the hot meal.”
—Christopher Buckley, U.S. author. A review of three books of quotations from Newt Gingrich. “Newtie’s Greatest Hits,” The New York Times Book Review (March 12, 1995)