I just found out about this very worthy non profit called the Quilliam Foundation. The organization describes itself as:
…the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy.
They maintain a blog, Twitter account and you can make a donation to their cause. They appear to be a much needed organization that has some pretty interesting things to to say. As an atheists who supports a secular state and the freedom to believe what you want, I am happy to see such an organization exists. I urge you to visit their site.
Secularism is anti-extreme.
What most people see in extremism is simply others acting on violent notions supported or alluded to in religious or literary works of fiction.
Two good examples are the ‘Quran’ and ‘The Iron Heel’.
Secularism would encourage the religious to only resort to violence that can be supported by humanistic argument.
It may sound more tricky with Jack London (or any other social persuasion), but it isn’t.
Humanism, like science, is a perpetual improvement scheme.
Sometimes violence is called for but it must be justifiable in terms of humanity’s well being.
As you can tell by reading the above attempt to clarify the humanist’s position it isn’t going to be a static position.
So back to my point. Secularism is the best anti-extreme system going.