Skip to content
Politics & Current Affairs

Hitchens: Against Religious Freedom

“Free exercise of religion? No, thanks. The taming and domestication of religious faith is one of the unceasing chores of civilization.” Christopher Hitchens on the freedom to practice faith.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

“Those who wish that there would be no mosques in America have already lost the argument: Globalization, no less than the promise of American liberty, mandates that the United States will have a Muslim population of some size,” says Christopher Hitchens. “The only question, then, is what kind, or rather kinds, of Islam it will follow. There’s an excellent chance of a healthy pluralist outcome, but it’s very unlikely that this can happen unless, as with their predecessors on these shores, Muslims are compelled to abandon certain presumptions that are exclusive to themselves.”

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Related
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
13 min
with

Up Next