The hajj is one of the five essential practices of Islam when they make the pilgrimage to Mecca Muslims ritually act out the central principles of their faith.

Ever since the Crusades when Christians from western Europe were fighting holy wars against Muslims in the near east western people have often perceived Islam as a violent and intolerant faith - even though when this prejudice took root Islam had a better record of tolerance than Christianity.

Moderation is part of faith so those who accuse Muslim schools of fostering fanaticism should learn a bit more about Islam.

I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don't think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism Islam or other faiths.

We have convinced over one billion members of the Islamic faith that we are prejudiced against their religion that we would deny them freedom of religion that we want suppress their culture and invade their governments.

Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success politically as well as spiritually and Islam went from strength to strength to strength.

Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism in Islam - have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom to enlightenment.

I think it's been hard for people to understand how Islam can be a good religion and yet the Islamists are evil. Those of us who have had experience with Islam understand this just as we understand the difference between snake handlers and people going to church on Sunday morning.

You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic democracy Islamic social justice and the equality of manhood in your own native soil.

I am totally against the idea that a Muslim woman should not have the same opportunities as a Muslim man to learn to open up to work help shape the future. To close Islam down to a sexist approach is totally intolerable and ridiculous. It's not Islam.

There is a group of individuals who are radical jihadists. We need to call them by name. They believe it is OK to kill people in the name of their religion. It is not all of Islam. It is not all Muslims. But there is a subgroup who believe it is OK. In fact it is their plan and design to kill people.

Islam is a religion of success. Unlike Christianity which has as its main image in the west at least a man dying in a devastating disgraceful helpless death.

Salman Rushdie indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law the sentence for that is actually death.

There is not a single Muslim leader today who has the courage and commitment to defend Islam and Muslims they are all in awe of the United States and other Western powers and are indebted to them.

Obama has no power to change American policy because there are people who specialize in drawing these policies which have been and still are hostile towards Islam.

We should be proud that our Prophet came into the world with the message of Islam to change it for the better and not for the worse or to keep things as they are.

I lead no party I follow no leader. I have given the best part of my life to careful study of Islam its law and polity its culture its history and its literature.

I think Islam has been hijacked by the idea that all Muslims are terrorists that Islam is about hate about war about jihad - I think that hijacks the spirituality and beauty that exists within Islam. I believe in allowing Islam to be seen in context and in its entirety and being judged on what it really is not what you think it is.

In the West you have always associated the Islamic faith 100 percent with Arab culture. This in itself is a fundamentalist attitude and it is mistaken.