Human beings, in nearly all cultures, have long engaged in a strange activity. They take a literary text, give it special status and attempt to live by its precepts. These texts are usually of considerable antiquity — yet are expected to throw light on situations their authors could not have imagined.
Last year I attended a conference in the United States about security and intelligence in the so-called war on terror and was astonished to hear one of the more belligerent participants, who as far as I could tell had nothing but contempt for religion, strongly argue that as a purely practical expedient, politicians and the media must stop referring to ”Muslim terrorism”.