Chris, you are a gem. I wish that movement atheism had more folks such as yourself involved, but alas, it seems that antitheists have the most vocal subset of voices. For that reason, I suspect that you will continue to catch flak from the more vocal subset of atheists for cooperating with minority religions in challenging hatred and marginalization.

From what I’ve seen in various online spaces and popular atheist literature, the most commonly held goal of vocal atheism (as it currently exists) is to rid the world of religion, and the means to achieve that goal is via ridicule, shame, and mockery. If you embrace verbal abuse and rigid exclusivism as an approach to others outside of your group, there isn’t much room for cooperation with others whose views differ. In fact, your behaviors begin to resemble the damaging tribalistic expressions of hurtful modes of religion–belief in the supernatural or not.

Expressing variations of “our way is the only way, you are dangerously deluded, you are morally and intellectually deficient, and we will verbally abuse you until you change” will certainly build a lot of in-group cohesion and it will help to expand one’s numbers of active members. Building in-group bonds and energizing one’s members via the fear of an external threat is quite often effective. It works quite well for fundamentalist Christianity. Witness the political Juggernaut that Christian fundamentalism has manifested in US politics. Why should it not work equally as well for other groups? What this approach will not do, however, is contribute toward a reduction of inter-group tensions, lessen inter-group prejudices, and foster inter-group cooperation.

I’m not certain how one can combat religious intolerance by expressing yet another form of religious intolerance. One thing is certain, though: the social tension that is generated by active, abrasive exclusivism generates a lot of attention, even if it is negative attention. Vocal atheism has garnered its place in the limelight. Now, what comes next?

Perhaps the next wave of movement atheism will choose a different approach. Sometimes it takes a transition of the generations to foster positive change. Hopefully the next generation will choose a more open and tolerant approach to those of different perspectives on faith and spirituality. One can also hope to see this come about in a more widespread basis throughout various other religious/philosophical groups, as well. History shall reveal all in good time. Hopefully, we will move forward rather than backward.

I also posted this on RD but I’ll do it again here: I do not trust that Muslims will ever help atheists. Oh sure, they’ll be there to mug for the cameras after a hurricaine but help us politically? Like, vote against abortion restrictions or in favor of women’s rights? No. I think not. So I am opting out of the golden rule here.

The fear of Islam is baseless and doesn’t serve any purpose. I think most Muslims are quite tolerant. It’s just a few bad ones that create the entire ruckus and give a bad name to the community.