Summing Up: Reflections on a Freethinking Life, by a Former ‘Freethinker’ Editor
In early 1944 I was born in London, a city I love. I spent much of my childhood in rural north Oxfordshire, an area to which I have a great sense of belonging. And I have lived in Victoria, Australia...
View ArticleThe Monarchy’s rebrand can’t hide Christian privilege
Originally published on 1 July 2026 on the National Secular Society website and republished here with permission. The Telegraph this week made much of what it portrayed as an important evolution in...
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America the Radical: Some Fifth of July Reflections
A day late and a dollar short, as the old saying goes. Yes, it is the fifth, rather than the Fourth, of July. But before setting down some reflections on the 250th birthday of the United States of...
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Thirty years of fighting for secularism in the UK: interview with Keith...
The original version of this interview was conducted by Helen Nicholls of the National Secular Society (NSS) and published on the NSS website on 29 May 2026. This interview celebrates and looks back...
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Interview with Sahar Delijani: Iran, Palestine, and anti-imperialism
Sahar Delijani. Sahar Delijani is an Iranian American writer and activist. She is the author of the 2013 novel Children of the Jacaranda Tree, which was translated into 32 languages and published in...
View ArticleA Call to a Post-Islamic World
There is just one book that’s completely word and letter perfect from the first time it was not even written down, but recited. Now, demands that you believe the impossible do not lead to peaceful...
View ArticleCreate a Legacy of Freethought
On this very day, 145 years ago, on 1 May 1881, the Freethinker was launched into the world. In that first issue, our founder, G.W. Foote, firmly and unapologetically asserted the ethos of the new...
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‘Islamophobia’, identity politics, and free speech
The following is an expanded and updated essay based on Maryam Namazie’s remarks at the launch of Steven Greer’s book, Islamophobia and Free Speech, on 15 April 2026, hosted by the Free Speech Union....
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Freethought History Webinar #10: Ernestine Rose, the Rabbi’s Atheist...
I’m excited to announce the tenth in the Freethinker’s series of free online seminars for all those interested in freethought history and its enduring relevance. The webinars, hosted by me and lasting...
View ArticlePandering to Christian nationalism is a dangerous game
Originally published on the National Secular Society website on 9 April 2026 and republished here with permission. In the space of a few days, both our Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition...
View ArticleBible Society retracts false Quiet Revival claims
Originally published on 26 March 2026 on the Humanists UK website and republished here with permission. There has been no ‘quiet revival’ of Christianity in Britain. Today, the Bible Society has...
View ArticleBritain has changed. The relationship between religion and state must change,...
Originally published on the National Secular Society website on 25 March 2026 and republished here with permission. Britain today is both more religiously diverse and nonreligious than ever before....
View ArticleHow the Catholic Church still avoids accountability for abuse in Italy
Francesco Zanardi was 11 years old when a Catholic priest in northern Italy started sexually abusing him, an ordeal which lasted for more than five years. As an adult, Zanardi founded Rete L’Abuso, a...
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Islam’s tyrannical costumes
Jeunes mères et grandes soeurs aux regards pleins de pèlerinages, sultanes, princesses de démarche et de costumes tyranniques… —Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations The female veil provides a rich...
View ArticleCohesion strategy: Fine words on free speech – but still too timid on religion
This article was first published on the website of the National Secular Society (NSS) on 10 March 2026, and it is republished here with permission. The Government has published its long-awaited social...
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Freethought History Webinar #9: Bradlaugh and India: A Trans-Imperial History...
I’m excited to announce the ninth in the Freethinker’s series of free online seminars for all those interested in freethought history and its enduring relevance. The webinars, hosted by me and lasting...
View ArticleWomen’s Blasphemy and the State
Blasphemous. Corrupt. Apostate. Kafir. These words are always defined from the perspective of the religious. The religious lens is treated as neutral, as default. Blasphemy is assumed to be harm, at...
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The freedom to believe is not the freedom to dominate
Dina-Perla Portnaar is known for the Dutch memoir, Exodus from the Lighthouse—Exodus uit de vuurtoren, about her restrictive religious upbringing. The book was adapted into a Dutch television...
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Trains of (Free)Thought #2: Doubt, Dissent, and Death at the Duomo di Milano
Trains of (Free)Thought is a four-part series of reflections prompted by the author’s travels through France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany between 26 August and 23 September 2025. Other instalments...
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US feeling cross: a review of ‘Cross Purposes’ by Jonathan Rauch
Religion—meaning, in practice, Christianity—has an essential role to play in upholding liberal democracy in the United States, in the view of US author Jonathan Rauch, propounded in his latest book,...
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