I was watching Newsnight on BBC2 last night and there was an Egyptian lady talking about the current wave of violence sweeping her country. Apparently, Coptic Christians (is that the right description?) are feeling persecuted and that the army isn't protecting them, and as we have it in Maltese, "ghaqdet" – in English, it all kicked off.

Sadly, there have been deaths, all because one religion is at violent loggerheads with another, all in the name of the Supreme Being, whatever or whoever (or even whether) that may be, being as I don't pretend to have the wisdom to encompass the discussion.

This is not a new phenomenon, by any means – Christians have been as guilty in the past of knocking off unbelievers in great numbers, and while actual killing is now off the agenda (except in the Deep South, the actual one or the virtual one) certain specimens of Christianity think nothing of having a stab at rendering anyone who dares gainsay their interpretation a non-person.

When will the human race get it into its collective head that no-one in their right minds gives a fig about his neighbour's religious sentiments – or even the lack thereof? I don't care if the guy next door is a Christian, a Marxist (Groucho or Karl) a Buddhist or a Jedi Knight, as long as he keeps it to himself and doesn't disturb me while performing his spiritual ablutions.

It's not only on the macrocosmic scale that religious (non)persuasions are used to attack people, of course.

That reprehensible rag, KullHadd, used by the Labour Party as one of its weapons of mass distraction, undermined the Great Leader's "Progressive Movement of Moderates" (a bit like conservationist hunters, that, but leave it aside) by front-paging an attack on Lou Bondi for his declared atheism. Apparently, it's OK to have liberal thoughts and express them, but if it is expedient to ignore what the Leader is trying to say, then take a swing at the victim, by all means, if you think it will intimidate him. And this is the party whose apologists keep whining that people like me resort to personal attacks, ruddy hypocrites.

True liberals don't care about things which make us different from each other, we get on with life and ignore them. Labour, on the other hand, seems to revel in a ghetto mentality still.