This week, By Jove artistic director David Bullen considers the recently raised notion of ‘militant atheism’ in the British media…
In the past few weeks, Britain’s most outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins came under fire for a series of tweets perceived as inciting hatred against Muslims. News publications from across the political spectrum turned the wrath of their mighty pens (well, keyboards) on Dawkins and denounced his actions as no better than the zealots he was criticising. That other famous atheist and veritable twitter deity Stephen Fry has also been under media scrutiny of late for his letter to David Cameron regarding the sinister state of affairs for the Russian LGBT at present. Today their cases intertwined as Fry threw in his support for Dawkins by calling him ‘brave & honourable’ and linking his followers to an article by Nick Cohen of The Spectator defending Dawkins.
Many replies to Fry’s tweets aptly demonstrated one of the main thrust of Cohen’s argument: that a liberal agenda fears to call out aspects of Islam that are downright contradictory to the central tenets of British life and law, and thus condemns any criticism of Islam as generically bigoted. Cohen makes the observation that there are those that are severely disenfranchised under some forms of Islam – especially women. By failing to call out and condemn this for fear of being intolerant, Cohen suggests we are betraying those who need our help. The likes of Dawkins, Fry, and others are in fact speaking out when no one else will.
There are flaws on either side of the argument, as well as some key truths that neither side seem to want to acknowledge. Inflammatory language and the incitement of hatred is abhorred in all its forms, whoever it targets. Dawkins’ tweets – which I urge you to seek out and judge for yourself in their proper context rather than editing together a selection for this article – are borderline because they risk generically condemning all Muslims as one group, which would be as short sighted as it would be for Christians; there are denominations and differing degrees of interpretation. In actual fact, Dawkins does condemn Christians as vehemently – but should he be labelled with the term ‘militant atheist’? And if so – is it a bad thing? As Cohen points out, unlike much religious conservatism, neither Dawkins nor any other ‘militant atheist’ has ever called for gays to be put to death. Or called for the death of any other group for that matter.
Russia has defended its new anti-gay laws on the basis that homosexuality is contradictory to the traditional Russian way of life. If we want to follow that logic, then many of the values of Islam, and indeed Christianity, go against our supposedly liberal, secular government and way of life. Despite the fact that Britain and its former empire is responsible for much of the world’s problems in places where our colonial legacy can still be felt, we have moved progressively forward in the last few decades. That the hard-core conservative lobby were unable to prevent the passing of the same-sex marriage bill or indeed failed to significantly slow it down is an indication that there is hope that twenty-first century Britain is a haven for equality. This liberalism may not be ‘traditional’ in a Christian sense, but for a country with a secular justice system that promises equal rights for all, it is right. While it is important not to discriminate or impinge on religious beliefs, this must not mean we bend the rules for religious groups. Religion is ultimately a personal belief, and therefore all public venues, organisations, and institutions must proceed from a secular perspective.
As I have said, there are lessons to learn on both sides. Perhaps Dawkins should learn to use the limited character space of twitter more tactfully. Similarly, before leaping to criticise, we should consider the argument from a wider perspective. Living in a multi-cultural society demands a secular law in order to guarantee justice across the board – yes, Britain was once part of the empire of Christ and much of the nation was once religious, but times change. Let us continue to lead the way into the future and not return to the ways of the past.
