93 quotes found
"Defeating the infidels requires a much greater effort. It requires the mobilization of the nation."
"On the cause of the 2005 tsunami:"
"Cultural and ethnic diversity benefit humanity’s future, survival, strength and excellence, promoting what I call cultural vigour, similar to the way in which molecular and genetic diversity promote “hybrid vigor” in nature and thus strength, resilience and a higher potential for a problem-free future."
"Globalization is a process that encompasses the causes, course, and consequences of transnational and transcultural integration of human and non-human activities."
"In a globalized world, security can no longer be thought of as a zero-sum game involving states alone. Global security, instead, has five dimensions that include human, environmental, national, transnational, and transcultural security, and, therefore, global security and the security of any state or culture cannot be achieved without good governance at all levels that guarantees security through justice for all individuals, states, and cultures."
"We should aim for peaceful coexistence at least and transcultural synergy at best."
"Just like the threat of mutually assured destruction from nuclear weapons, an extensive war in space would make space useless, and the decisions taken today will influence the use of space for many generations to come."
"In order to stop the cycle of disenfranchisement, frustration, and discontent, dignity must be central, paving the way for a governance model that is affordable, acceptable, and applicable to various regional and cultural sensibilities."
"Much of what we often consider knowledge is actually a point of view held without sufficient grounds: in a word, dogma."
"The lack of collective dignity felt by so many in the Arab world is the result of a combination of internal autocratic and corrupt regimes, with predictable ineffective and unaccountable governance, supported by external actors with short-term geopolitical interests."
"Neuro-rational Physicalism is premised on the neuro-biological foundation of human nature, which implies that thoughts, perceptions or emotions correspond to a physical reaction in the brain."
"It is unrealistic to imagine a US geostrategic vision which sees its pivotal interests linked exclusively to the Pacific region. More appropriately, we need to consider the wider Middle East, Central Asia and North-East Africa to be bound together in a geopolitical unit of pivotal importance."
"3D printing is going to transform our societies, our freedoms and our sense of security."
"Much like addictive drugs, power uses ready-made reward circuitries in the brain, producing extreme pleasure."
"In the “stealth era,” battlefield strength might just be dictated by the level of stealth or invisibility technology at the disposal of combatants. This is likely to trigger a scientific and technological race, as well as provide new platforms for countries to enhance their prestige domestically and internationally."
"A lesser-known fact about the geopolitics of resources has escaped public polemics. This refers to rare earth metals or rare-earth elements (REMs), a set of 17 naturally occurring non-toxic materials, which play a pivotal role for emerging technologies and which are predominantly produced and exported from China."
"Institutions should focus on educating against clashes of culture and the promotion of a culture of tolerance and peace."
"People should be educated about the links between education, ideology, and politics as a way to promote the virtue of humility."
"We are therefore driven by both basic survival instincts and rational thought."
"The enduring assumption that human behaviour is governed by innate morality and reason is at odds with the persistence of human deprivation, inequality, injustice, misery, brutality and conflict."
"In my view, most human beings are innately neither moral nor immoral but rather amoral. They are driven by emotional self-interest and have the potential to be either moral or immoral, depending on what their self-interest dictates, and will be influenced in their choices by emotions and socio-cultural contexts. Circumstances will determine the survival value of humankind’s moral compass in that being highly moral in an immoral environment may be detrimental to one’s survival and vice versa. Indeed, our neuronal architecture is pre-programmed to seek gratification and feel good regardless of the reason. All apparently altruistic behaviour serves self-interest at some level."
"Further, humanity must never be complacent about the virtues of human nature. Therefore, everything must be done at all levels to prevent alienation, inequality, deprivation, fear, injustice, anarchy and the loss of the rule of law. History has shown repeatedly that humankind is capable of unthinkable brutality and injustice. This is often a result of what I call fear(survival)-induced pre-emptive aggression, which may occur no matter how calm the situation appears, although it is not necessarily inevitable. Moreover, where there is injustice that is perceived as posing a threat to survival, humankind will do whatever necessary to survive and be free. In such instances, might (military or otherwise) may not prevail or be the optimal solution."
"Human nature as we know it is, nevertheless, malleable and manageable. It may be radically modified as a result of advances in bio-, molecular, nano- and computational technologies. It will therefore be essential to establish a clear code of ethics regulating the use of these technologies sooner rather than later."
"Humankind is conceived as primarily motivated by neurochemically mediated emotions resulting from genetic make-up and environmental influences, employing reason and engaging in conscious reflection only occasionally."
"We are neither radically free to choose our nature nor entirely determined by our biological heritage."
"Circumstances will determine what I term the survival value of humankind’s moral compass. Being highly moral in an immoral environment will almost certainly be detrimental to one’s survival and vice versa."
"In other words, it is my view that the brain is preprogrammed to feel good (i.e., to seek a sense of well-being/gratification). This is what I term the gratification principle. This usually occurs as the result of instinctive salient/relevant acts or what we normatively decide are salient/relevant acts."
"Indeed, there is no evidence to suggest innate morality. It is therefore important to create the conditions under which the expansion of our moral communities may become more likely."
"Those who are outside the centres of power, because of the need for a positive and not simply a stable identity, are likely to find an independent identity appealing."
"Emotional Amoral Egoism indicates that ethnic conflict should be understood in terms of a reaction to a failure to satisfy a group’s basic physiological, security and ego needs due to discrimination, experienced by a group whose relations are premised, above all, on cultural affinities."
"Human and societal security should be seen as complementary to state security, and security must be thought of in multi-sum and multi-dimensional terms (human, national, transnational, environmental and transcivilisational)."
"The power of emotions as drivers of behaviour, especially when survival is perceived as being at stake, needs to be recognised and taken into account at all levels of society and governance."
"Policies should take account of the emotional dimensions of human behaviour rather than assuming rational action."
"Policies that assume that human nature is a tabula rasa (clean slate) should be reviewed and revised to reflect that man has an in-built genetic code for survival with no evidence for innate morality."
"Morality, if present, should not be relied on because it will be trumped by self interest in most circumstances."
"All policies should be packaged with full awareness of the limitation of human nature (amorality, emotionality and egoism) in both the short- and the long-term."
"International cooperation is required to prevent anarchic situations developing and the unmasking of ever-present brutality and injustice that results from fear for survival in such situations."
"I define sustainable history as a durable progressive trajectory in which the quality of life on this planet or other planets is premised on the guarantee of human dignity for all at all times and under all circumstances."
"Many of the great achievements in history that are commonly attributed to one geo-cultural domain often owe a great debt to those of others. In this sense, some of the greatest achievements of human civilisation have been collective efforts and are part of the same human story."
"A good governance paradigm that limits excesses of human nature and ensures an atmosphere of happiness and productivity by promoting reason and dignity is required."
"Humankind is an insignificant part of existence."
"Human beings are emotional amoral egoists, driven above all by emotional self-interest. All of our thoughts, beliefs and motivations are neurochemically mediated, some predetermined for survival, others alterable."
"What makes our existence meaningful is highly subjective and ultimately determined by sustainable neurochemical gratification."
"All knowledge is acquired through the application of reason and has a physical basis."
"There is only one collective human civilisation comprised of geo-cultural domains and cultures."
"The history of human civilisation is a history of mutual borrowings."
"Dignity is central to the sustainability of history."
"Security, stability and prosperity will depend on the application of the multi-sum security principle that captures the multi-dimensional aspects of security and insists on the centrality of global justice for lasting security."
"Harmonious interstate relations will be guided by the paradigm of Symbiotic Realism that stresses the importance of absolute rather than relative gains."
"A set of global values in keeping with human nature and dignity need to be identified and developed."
"Strict ethical guidelines need to be developed in anticipation of significant technological and biotechnological advances in order to guarantee human dignity."
"Ultimately, I conclude that however we understand existence, what gives meaning to our lives are those things that serve our neurochemically based emotional self-interest in a sustainable way."
"Addictive drugs misuse the brain’s existing pre-programming, activating reward mechanisms and extreme feelings of pleasure. When stimulated, the brain’s pleasure centres emit signals to repeat the behaviour. In this sense, the brain is pre-programmed to feel good."
"Knowledge is also inferred from what is accepted as established knowledge, with new knowledge being based on the best explanation. This includes possible truths subject to proof."
"Knowledge about things beyond our immediate environment may be acquired through deduction, if the initial premises are believed to be correct."
"The notion of innate knowledge (including moral knowledge) is rejected, but that of moral sensitivities is accepted."
"All knowledge is to some extent interpreted."
"There is a physical neurobiological substrate to all human knowledge, including thoughts, memories, perceptions and emotions. To this end, mental states and thought processes are physical."
"Morally relevant emotions are essential for living in social groups and they provide the basis on which we may construct conceptual frameworks that help guide our actions, but human beings should more accurately be thought of as being endowed with morally relevant capacities rather than innate moral knowledge."
"Each high point in the history of human civilisation has taken place where the conditions were ripe and has borrowed and built on the achievements of other cultures whose golden age may have passed."
"Almost every golden age of geo-cultural domains has been characterised by good governance, exchanges, borrowing, innovation and the adaptation of earlier contributions to forms of knowledge, and rationalism."
"One challenge is to agree on minimum criteria of good governance that are not perceived as a threat to cultural traditions and to draw on moral concepts that are indigenous to specific cultural settings. {{fix cite}"
"Human beings are largely motivated by their emotional repertoire, manifested through their need for attachment, physical security, a sense of belonging and a positive personal and collective identity."
"Civilisational triumph is thus not a zero-sum enterprise that favours one geo-cultural domain over another."
"Civilisational triumph is important because if it is not actively sought, conflictual relations between members of geo-cultural domains may become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"Justice is paramount to civilisational triumph because of its centrality to human dignity needs, the success of individual geo-cultural domains and the well-being of human civilisation."
"Focusing purely on extremism, whether in the Arab-Islamic world or the West, will not alleviate the root causes of tensions between members of different cultures. It will only alienate those who do not recognise themselves in those stereotypes, and generate fear and misunderstanding."
"Cultural essentialism is, thus, intimately tied to power relations. Fixity, homogeneity and separateness are prioritised within an essentialist framework. Therefore, part of any effort to resist essentialism is recognising diversity within difference, contingency, mutability and connectedness."
"Considerations of justice are also integral to efforts to generate transcultural security in the first instance and, ultimately, transcultural synergy."
"One of the key ingredients of coexistence and successful cooperation is trust."
"In my opinion, a life governed by reason is likely to be more dignified than one shaped by dogma and unbridled emotions."
"Indeed, collective triumph will also depend both on the application of reason and the recognition that a great deal of knowledge is indeterminate and may be temporally, spatially and perhaps culturally constrained."
"Our new concept of just power argues that the promotion of justice should be the aim of modern statecraft, not for altruistic reasons, but because it is the only sustainable way that states can promote progress and stability in a globalised world."
"If states do not act according to principles of justice, the injustices they perpetrate will harm not just other states but ultimately also their own national interest."
"A state’s foreign policy should not just be smart, it should also be just."
"By promoting justice and thus the interests of the international community as a whole, a state will be able to make its influence over others sustainable and achieve its own national interest."
"Experience taught me that it is wise to be patient and forbearing with opponents and to use the divine cure of repeling with what is best (then verily he, between whom and you there was enmity, (will become) as though he was a close friend.) Quran 41:34"
"It is not wise to think of people as either friends or enemies as if you were the center of the universe; many are not aware of your existence!"
"I am grateful to some pens that are as sharp as a sword edge; they taught me how to go on calmly and smiling."
"It is regrettable to spend one's life in a battle that ends with no victory nor defeat, to consume it in another battle that ends with a defeat, and in a third that ends with his victory over his brother."
"My enemies, I thank you! You are who trained me to be patient, to respond to the evil with the good and to overlook."
"My brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocent people, children, elderly, and women have been killed ... in the name of Al Qaeda? Will you be happy to meet God Almighty carrying the burden of these hundreds of thousands or millions of victims on your back?"
"Even though homosexuality is considered a sin in all the Semitic holy books, it does not require any punishment in this world. It is a sin that will accompany its committee in the life after death."
"Homosexuals are not deviating from Islam. Homosexuality is a grave sin, but those who say that homosexuals deviate from Islam are the real deviators. By condemning homosexuals to death they are committing a graver sin than homosexuality itself."
"Even though homosexuality does not distance oneself from Islam, the Islam does not encourage individuals who have same-sex attraction to show their feelings in public."
"Two clerics led the protestations: Safar al-Hawali and Salman al-Audah. Hawali was a forty-year-old, taciturn-looking man, with deep-set eyes and a long, untrimmed, jet-black beard. Audah was younger and more jovial, and he kept his beard short. The two men had opposed the jihad in Afghanistan, disagreeing with Azzam’s call on all Muslims to fight the Soviets. But they could not abide the arrival of the infidels on the peninsula. Their tapes sold like hotcakes, under the table, in the back of shops, passed around after prayers at the mosque. They decried the influence of the West on their country, warning that the war with Iraq and the arrival of infidel troops in Saudi Arabia were part of a larger plan by the West to dominate the Arab and Muslim world. “It is not the world against Iraq,” said Hawali in one speech, “It is the West against Islam. If Iraq has occupied Kuwait, then America has occupied Saudi Arabia. The real enemy is not Iraq. It is the West.”"
"The speeches became increasingly political and fiery, enraging Saudi youth already discontent and bored, or frustrated after returning from the jihad against the Soviets. Some were now traveling to fight in Bosnia and Chechnya. Hawali and Audah also petitioned the king for reforms in two letters: they demanded the establishment of the long-promised shura council, and they called for domestic and foreign policies that complied fully with the shari’a. There was no outright call for the removal of the royal family or any questioning of the legitimacy of the House of Saud. Instead, theirs was a call to embrace Islamic values more truly, and to reject servitude to the West. This was a reform movement working within the confines of the state, but the king saw it as a betrayal by his subjects. By 1994, Hawali, Audah, and dozens of their followers had been thrown in jail, where they would stay until 1999. But the tapes of their sermons still circulated, others were still preaching, and dissidents spread the word from exile by fax."
"I only deemed it lawful to kill whoever claims that the sun is static (thābita la jāriya) and refuses to repent of this after clarification. This is because denying the circulation of the sun constitutes a denial of Allah (Glorified be He), His Great Book, and His Honourable Messenger. It is well established in the Din (religion of Islam) by way of decisive evidence and Ijma` (consensus) of scholars that whoever denies Allah, His Messenger or His Book is a Kafir (disbeliever), and their blood and wealth become violable. It is the duty of the responsible authority to ask them to repent of this; either they repent or be executed. Thanks to Allah that this issue is not debatable among scholars."
"One virulent critic of Western influence, and a rising star, was a young blind cleric named Abdelaziz bin Baz. His influence would shape the minds of those who would transform the region in the decades to come. In 1940, Bin Baz, neither an Al-Saud nor an Al-ash-Sheikh, had the audacity to call for a ban on all non-Muslims on the Arabian Peninsula. He landed in jail. After his release, he would continue to issue anachronistic religious opinions; among them were refusing to believe the Americans had landed on the moon, insisting the sun orbited the earth, complaining about the introduction of radio and television, of girls’ education, of anything that was modern and novel. But he had understood the lesson of his time in prison: never undermine the House of Saud and the pillars of its power. No matter the failings of the Al-Sauds, the clerics saw them as a bulwark against worse dangers, like communism and secularism."
"From my perspective, there are two memories: one for love and the other for life. When one of them is active, the other completely stops functioning because it recognizes the amount of confusion it would face if it were active at the same time. But in reality, I don’t know if we can use one whenever we want, or if they control this as well."
"All beautiful things are temporary, like holidays."
"If memories had a limited shelf life, we would be relieved of much of our pain and give our souls and minds a chance to heal. The experience ends, but the memory remains. And this permanence is the secret of our suffering!"
"Unfortunately, many of us do not know God except in supplication."