A lot of people say to me: "I agree with you about Islam, but not about religion." Well thanks, but if that's the case then you don't agree with me, because Islam is not the problem. Religion is the problem. The allowances we make for faith, and the respect we give to belief without evidence has encouraged Islam to push its way into a society where it really doesn't belong and threaten all our freedom. But that's not Islam's fault. Its stated goal is to take over the world. It's just being true to itself. It's our fault for indulging religion in the first place, and for giving religious opinion a status in our society that it hasn't earned and doesn't deserve. Why? You tell me. Animals don't seem to need gods in their lives, do they? Perhaps because they haven't got such a low opinion of themselves as we've been taught to have. Insignificant, unclean, in need of salvation. Recognise yourself? If you're wretched enough to buy into that life-sucking drivel the only thing you need to be saved from is your own gullibility. Your soul doesn't need cleansing, because it isn't dirty. And anyone who tells you different is telling you for their benefit, and not for yours. Because the purpose of religion is the employment and the empowerment of clergy. That's its only purpose. You don't matter. You have never mattered. You don't seriously think that any of those old frauds in the Vatican really believe in God, do you? Come on, God is for the little people. People like you and me. It's all about the clergy, who do very well out of it. How well? Let's ask the Archbishop of Canterbury, if we can find out which of his two palaces he's currently staying in, and of course if he isn't too busy praying towards Mecca. His recent disgraceful attempt to crowbar sharia law into British life is a good example of how some Christian clergy are so unprincipled they'll happily hitch their wagon to the crescent moon, to a religion they despise as heretical, in order to help push unwanted religious values into society at large, because for them any religious values are better than none. The real enemy for both of these dogmas is secularism, and that's what they're most afraid of, because they know it could threaten their generous tax breaks and the countless millions in public subsidy that they're currently rolling around in. And that's why whenever you hear a speech from a religious leader nowadays it usually contains a warning against the danger of secularism. When the Pope went to American recently it's the first thing he said when he got off the plane. Obviously he also apologised for all the child abuse, but what else was he supposed to say? Get over it, you pussies? Of course not. Not even if he was thinking it, which he probably was. Oh come on, you know he was. But secularism is not atheism, as many of these God-peddling faith jockeys will often try to pretend in order to frighten people who think they're going to be possessed by demons if society isn't run by God - or rather by men who think they're God. There are plenty of religious people who are secularists. They believe in God, but they've got too much class to try and force their views on everyone else. And that's all secularism means. It means religious freedom for everybody, not just for religious people. It means respecting everyone's right to worship freely, but removing the power of the middle man, the clergyman, the self-appointed intermediary, to interfere and meddle uninvited in people's lives. No wonder these pious parasites are more afraid of it than they are of hellfire itself. Seculophobia. Is that even a word? Well, I guess it is now. I realise that all this sounds very negative, but let me assure you that I'm actually very optimistic about the future of humanity, at least in the long term, because I just don't think it's possible for us to stay this stupid forever. We'll try, of course, and some of us will really dig our heels in too, no doubt, but I think despite ourselves we will eventually evolve into something a bit more intelligent, a bit more compassionate, and a bit less afraid of our own shadow, and when that happens religion will simply die a natural death, of acute embarrassment, if there's any justice. The thing is, though, I don't want it to take thousands of years. I want it to happen now. Partly because I'm a modern kind of guy and I want everything now, but also because it pretty much needs to happen now if we want to keep our freedom. If we don't shake off religion, we are not going to shake off Islam. It's that simple. Because Islam is here to stay. Any population projection will confirm that. In a couple of generations some parts of Europe will have no choice but to democratically allow sharia law, which, as we know, discriminates against and victimises women, Jews, homosexuals, and pretty much anyone who isn't a heterosexual Muslim male, preferably with a beard. So Islam needs to be neutralised in Europe now before it's too late, not by engaging it in respectful dialogue and throwing money at it as usual, but by doing what we should have done years ago and legislating religion out of public life and back into the private domain where it belongs. Right now Islam is laughing at us. It's watching us lead ourselves by the nose into submission. What can we do? All any of us can do is speak out, while we're still allowed to, because some Muslims are now demanding that criticising their religion be made a criminal offence. I suppose we should have seen that one coming, really, shouldn't we? It actually is a criminal offence in the Netherlands, it seems, where anyone satirising Islam is liable to be arrested in the middle of the night and have their apartment ransacked by the police. The Dutch people must be scratching their heads wondering what ever happened to the free country they used to live in before Islam came along. Last week in the football tournament when the Dutch team lined up for their national anthem, I was half expecting to hear the Muslim call to prayer ringing out around the stadium. Is that offensive? I do hope so, because it's time to stop being polite. It's time to stop showing fake respect, and to start insisting that this divisive, dangerous, insulting, poisonous bullshit is taken out of our public life where it violates our human rights. Out of government, out of the law, and especially out of education. And the vast army of self-interested money-grubbing clergy and lobby groups and other assorted faith-based so-called community leaders who currently feed on our freedom like maggots should be told exactly what they can do with themselves in the bluntest possible terms. I'll even volunteer for that job myself. Peace, but not at any price.