"There can only be one answer to this hideous act of jihad against the staff of Charlie Hebdo. It is the obligation of the Western media and Western leaders, religious and lay, to protect the most basic rights of freedom of expression, whether in satire on any other form. The West must not appease, it must not be silenced. We must send a united message to the terrorists: Your violence cannot destroy our soul."

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Source: How to Respond to Islamist Kalashnikovs in the Heart of Paris by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 7, 2015.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Activist, Author

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born activist and author known for her outspoken views on women's rights and criticism of Islam.

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"As a woman you are better off in life earning your own money. You couldn't prevent your husband from leaving you or taking another wife, but you could have some of your dignity if you didn't have to beg him for financial support."

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"The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, nonpersons. The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the world; it restrains them, confines them, grooms them for docility. A mind can be cramped just as a body may be, and a Muslim veil blinkers both your vision and your destiny. It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the domination of a race but of a sex."

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