Moral, spiritual and cultural leaders from around the world have launched a global call for compassion among followers of different beliefs, religious and non-religious.

The non-religious as well as the religious fight amongst themselves, Mark Vernon observes. But in questioning, they are all the better for it, provided that plural thoughtfulness can overcome intolerant rationalism.

Writer and broadcaster Rod Liddle, who has in the past been attacked by Christians and Muslims for his media assaults on religious extremism, has now invited the wrath of secularists by criticising “evangelical non-belief” in a UK Channel 4 TV programme, ‘The Trouble With Atheism', broadcast last night.