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Many people think that religious belief should be private and have little or no role in public life. One of the reasons given for this is that permitting a role to religious belief would lead to irresolvable disagreements and so, when it comes to public life, only secular arguments should be considered.

Whatever else we say about the murders of the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo we must insist that this was not a victimless crime; we must also insist that it was committed by criminals. A clash of metanarratives might have put guns in Chérif and Saïd Kouachi’s hands; but it takes a peculiar hatred to shoot an unarmed woman in the head.