He’s not saying anything you don’t already know (or that you haven’t heard from him before) but I get so few chances to feature prominent nonbelievers in a light agreeable to the HA faithful that I can’t let the opportunity pass. Harris, Hitchens, and Hirsi Ali — liberals all, but unusually clear-eyed about Islamic fundamentalism thanks to their atheism. Or, in Hirsi Ali’s case, is it that she’s an atheist thanks to her unusually clear-eyed view of Islamic fundamentalism? Follow the link and see what she has to say about what Noam Chomsky and Paul Wolfowitz have in common. The possibility of Iraqi democracy is where she and Hitch diverge.

My one quibble here: Do liberals really regard jihadi rantings as “propaganda” meant to mask deeper class or colonialist grievances? They may believe that Bin Laden et al. are unconsciously channeling those latent resentments into religious fanaticism, but “propaganda” implies a deliberate, conscious deception. I can’t picture Osama surreptitiously cribbing from Das Kapital. Although…