Tibi Quotes & Sayings

The Jihad is not just a way of testing yourself but also means using violence to spread Islam. — Bassam Tibi

Metaphysics ... is nothing but the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically. Nothing here can escape us, because what reason brings forth entirely out of itself cannot be hidden, but is brought to light by reason itself as soon as reason's common principle has been discovered. The perfect unity of this kind of cognition, and the fact that it arises solely out of pure concepts without any influence that would extend or increase it from experience or even particular intuition, which would lead to a determinate experience, make this unconditioned completeness not only feasible but also necessary. Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex. Dwell in your own house, and you will know how simple your possessions are. - Persius — Immanuel Kant

Retire within thyself, and thou will discover how small a stock is there.
[Lat., Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex.] — Aulus Persius Flaccus

America's strength is that it is capable of accepting people into its communities. — Bassam Tibi

Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism. — Bassam Tibi

Almost 20 percent of the people living in Germany today have a foreign background. The problem is that Germany can't really offer foreigners an identity because the Germans hardly have a national identity themselves. That is certainly a result of Auschwitz. — Bassam Tibi

If you spend a thing you can not have it.
[Lat., Non tibi illud apparere si sumas potest.] — Plautus

Muslims have to give up three things if they want to become Europeans: They have to bid farewell to the idea of converting others, and renounce the Jihad. The third thing they need to give up is the Shariah, which is the Islamic legal system. — Bassam Tibi

Nemo est qui tibi sapientius suadere possit te ipso: numquam labere, si te audies.
(Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself: if you heed yourself, you'll never go wrong.) — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing is stronger than Custom
(Fac tibi consuescat: nil adsuetudine maius) — Ovid

I myself am Muslim and I stand on the side of an open society. — Bassam Tibi

The weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged. — Bassam Tibi

Everything that thou reprovest in another, thou must most carefully avoid in thyself.
[Lat., Omnia quae vindicaris in altero, tibi ipsi vehementer fugienda sunt.] — Marcus Tullius Cicero

A lot of people don't know if Denmark is a country or a cheese. — Bassam Tibi

Julia. At the most basic level a Roman husband had only to utter the phrase 'take your things for yourself' (tuas res tibi habeto) to separate from his wife. — Adrian Goldsworthy

In Germany representatives of the Islamic communities try to hijack children who are born here, along with the entire Islamic community, to prevent them from being influenced by the society which has taken them in. Children born here are like blank sheets on which you can write European or Islamic texts. Muslim representatives want to raise their children as if they don't even live in Europe. — Bassam Tibi

In Europe, on the other hand, Muslims find themselves in the opposite position: they are the minority, but they are offered the equality of citizens. The acceptance of reason-based knowledge by Muslims would for them smooth the way to secular democracy, human rights, peace among democratic nations and above all cultural-religious pluralism. If Muslim migrants embrace these values and the related rules, it matters little whether Muslims constitute a minority or a majority. Some leaders of the Islamic diaspora are not favorable to this embracing and make the accusation of Islamophobia every time the shari'a is rejected. This accusation becomes an instrument for deterring any call for change and for incriminating any rational criticism. A call for an embracing of cultural modernity as a platform of peace between civilizations becomes in this perception an expression of Islamophobia. — Bassam Tibi

It is time for thee to be gone, lest the age more decent in its wantonness should laugh at thee and drive thee of the stage.
[Lat., Tempus abire tibi est, ne ...
Rideat et pulset lasciva decentius aetas.] — Horace

May you live unenvied, and pass many pleasant years unknown to fame; and also have congenial friends.
[Lat., Vive sine invidia, mollesque inglorius annos
Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares.] — Ovid

Quid nomen tibi est? She was not about to offer her name up to a stranger. It was almost the only thing she possessed that nobody had stolen. — Ruth Downie

A conflict of values is not a misunderstanding. Islamic orthodoxy and the German constitution are not compatible. — Bassam Tibi

Be, as many now are, luxurious to yourself, parsimonious to your friends.
[Lat., Esto, ut nunc multi, dives tibi pauper amicis.] — Juvenal

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam tibi.
I will either find a way or make one. — Kendall Ryan

Unlike multiculturalism, cultural pluralism doesn't just mean diversity but also togetherness - primarily the understanding of the rules of the game - the European values structure. — Bassam Tibi

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam tibi:
Latin term for If I cannot find a way I will make my own — Kimber S. Dawn

Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn't just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn't have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance. — Bassam Tibi

In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination. — Bassam Tibi

The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon. — Bassam Tibi

Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta suppellex.

Retire within thyself, and thou will discover how small a stock is there. — Aulus Persius Flaccus

Hodie mihi cras tibi, said the inscription. Sic transit gloria mundi. My turn today, yours tomorrow. And thus passes away the glory of the world. — Diana Gabaldon

Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim. (Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.) — Ovid

Accusing somebody of racism is a very effective weapon in Germany. Islamists know this: As soon as you accuse someone of demonizing Islam, then the European side backs down. — Bassam Tibi

Haec ego non multis (scribo), sed tibi: satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus. I am writing this not to many, but to you: certainly we are a great enough audience for each other. — Epicurus