Christpher Hitchens, a leading voice of secularism, atheism and rationality died yesterday.

He’ll be sorely missed.

Below is a letter sent to him from the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain some while back and his response:

Dear Christopher Hitchens,

We at the Council of Ex-Muslims wish to convey to you the sincere thanks and good wishes of our members and friends for the enormous strength and support we have gained from your talks and from your writing.

For us, God is Not Great and The Portable Atheist are invaluable sources of inspiration. This is especially valuable in these difficult days in which religion is staging a come-back, a sort of ‘counter-revolution’ in which it has become the accepted thing to classify people in society in terms of religion as if this were their primary determining characteristic.

We send you our sincerest best wishes and deepest admiration,

Warmest wishes,

Maryam Namazie
Spokesperson
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

Here’s his response:

Dear Maryam (if I may…)

Many thanks for such a heartening letter: it quite brightened my day. I would love to think that I had been of any help to you: your journey has been rather more arduous than mine and I follow your work with admiration…

Yours for ethical humanism and against false “classifications”.

Fraternally.
Christopher H