We are all well aware of what day it is. Nine years ago, we all saw the images of planes being thrown into buildings; we all saw those buildings fall. We all know how many died. Yet it occurs to me that it was not that event in itself, but what was done after, which has blighted the world. Those planes were sent by a lunatic eager to kill and maim to achieve his own ends, but the true lunacy, if you think about it, lies with America’s reaction to it. Bush acted as though a sovereign nation had declared war on the US; immediately he deployed troops to Afghanistan, and almost immediately he added the word ‘Islamic’ to the word ‘terrorist’.

It’s this last act which was the most dangerous, because it instantly brought religion into the equation. We didn’t call Hitler a Christian dictator, just a dictator. In other words, it was bush who made this a religious war: indeed, it should never have been called a war in the first place. The result is the growth of religious fundamentalism in the states, including this moron threatening to burn copies of the Koran. Everything has been put into a religious context; everything has become black or white: Christianity and America good, Islam and foreigners bad. Conservatism good, liberalism bad.

The problem with the preacher in America is the second we prevent him from doing anything, society becomes slightly less free. On the other hand, by burning the Muslim holy book, he is in and of himself committing a profoundly intolerant act. Thus we have a paradox. I, as a liberal, believe people should be free to act as they whish, yet what this man proposed to do was profoundly illiberal, not to say highly reckless. But if this man was more tolerant of other people’s faith, he would not be burning the Koran; and if people were more tolerant of such actions, bbut simply saw it for what it is – some idiot trying to stir up trouble – it wouldn’t be a risk. In other words, it is because of conservatism that there is a problem.

Indeed, I think conservatism is a problem, and particularly the American brand of religious conservatism so fermented by Bush’s actions. Branding Bin Laden as an Islamic terrorist and then declaring war upon him, rather than discreetly dealing with him like the lunatic he is, drove people further into fundamentalism, intolerance and hatred. Now we have people saying that it is insulting to build an Islamic prayer room near ground zero; we have people throwing pigs into mosques; we have American bloggers frequently railing against Islam and espousing the most obscene and stupid things. From the pulpits more and more fundamental, intolerant readings of the bible are being preached, so that reason and science has given way to superstition and myth; the story of creation has pushed aside logic and evidence.

I look at all these things in horror

All this is because of religion and conservatism. Combine the two, and you get to a state where people hate each other just because they read different books. It is exactly what bin laden thinks, and by banding him a religious terrorist, Bush brought us all down to his level. Bin laden may have wanted a religious war, but it was George W. Bush that made it so, and his conservative followers who are carrying it on. Thus I think it is American religious conservatism, and conservatism in general, which is the biggest threat we face, not some lunatic in a cave. This problem stems from religious intolerance on both sides; the problem is not terrorism or democracy, Islam or Christianity in and of themselves, butt when such ideas are taken so far that they are pitted against one another. In short, the problem is a lack of tolerance on both sides. Without tolerance and understanding – without liberalism – there is only hatred, division and folly. And if that prevails, we are all lost.