Selina O'Grady and A C Graying were in conversation on the subject of the former's book, "In the Name of God: A History of Christian and Muslim Intolerance" at Conway Hall in London. It was interesting, with a lot of examples of the said intolerance. However, I and several others, took issue with the claim Selina made that inter-religious tolerance is not enough because tolerance implies hatred (does it?) and is unstable, often leading to intolerance (does it?). She preferred that we should respect other people's views. Many of us thought this was asking too much - some people's behaviour and ideas are simply too ludicrous to respect. We preferred the J. S. Mill idea that there are areas of life - for example sexual and religious - that so long as you do no harm in them should be left to individuals' and commumities' discretion.
Selina also came a bit unstuck over her criticism of Richard Dawkins, saying he holds religion up to ridicule (does he?) and that he has never been able to explain why religion has had such a hold on so many people if it's not getting at something important. Many from the floor pointed out that religion can be seen as a prime example of a meme - an idea that has self-replicating features, whatever its merits. (The diplomatic Mr Grayling adjudicated that Selina was as England to Australia in the latest Test match in this exchange.)
Someone else suggested that there are grounds for thinking there's enough barbarism and intolerance of all forms around for it to sometimes manifest itself through politics and sometimes through religion. That sounded depressingly true.
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