The huge problem of militant Islam Is not confined to Iraq and Syria.

In 1924 Kemal Ataturk and the Grand National Assembly abolished the Caliphate, and along with it, the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Pious Foundations were wound up, religious schools transferred to the secular arm, and the Sheriat Courts were closed. Instead, a Civil Code, based on the Swiss code, was introduced.

Ataturk believed that Islam was “natural” religion, based on reason, science, knowledge and logic, and that Friday sermons in mosques should be in harmony with them. Preachers should follow closely the political and social conditions of the civilised world and deliver their sermons in Turkish, not in a dead language.

Nearly a hundred years later old-fashioned Islamism is back, imperiling Turkish law and democracy, not to mention the position of women in society. In Islam the movement is backwards. The successes of the so-called Caliphate are going to encourage further extremism, and push modern Islam to adopt ever more extreme answers to the problem of how to adapt to the modern world.

The Islamic countries are not alone. In the United States, there is a growing disdain for science. Huge numbers believe in the literal words of the bible, deny global warming and think the Earth was created six thousand years ago.

If you are looking for a “natural” belief, based on reason, science, knowledge and logic, espouse Epicureanism; don’t go backwards into ignorance.