71ture secular, demo cratic society. It can sometimes
be very hard to make a mental leap and put your-
self into the mind of the average Pakistani. I know
many Pakistani atheists who— alongside liberal
Muslims— are trying to demo cratize their society
from within Pakistan. You and I can have this dis-
cussion without fear, but for them such open dis-
cussions can result in death.Harris Of course. And I hear from many of these
people. I’m well aware that millions of nominally
Muslim freethinkers are in hiding out of necessity.
This is one of the things I fi nd so insufferable about
the liberal backlash against critics of Islam—
especially the pernicious meme “Islamophobia,”
by which anyone who thinks Islam merits special
concern at this moment in history is branded a
bigot. What worries me is that so many moderate
Muslims believe that “Islamophobia” is a bigger
prob lem than literalist Islam is. They seem more
outraged that someone like me would equate
jihad with holy war than that millions of their
co- religionists do this and commit atrocities as a
result.
In recent days, the Islamic State has been burning
prisoners alive in cages and decapitating people by
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