When I'm challenged I'm not going to issue a fatwa against the challenger, have him excommunicated or wave heresy laws at him.

Very reassuring, but there have of course been many occasions within my lifetime when equivalent things have been done in the name of atheism. "Attacking organised religion" has too often been a brutal and literally murderous activity.

Misusing power to persecute people who are seen as opponents is a long-standing chacteristic of human society, with or without religion, and very bit as common within a totally sectarian context as in one where religion of one sort or another is involved.