Following the massacre in Paris, Voltaire’s famous saying about his willingness to die to give others freedom of expression, even if he personally disagreed with the thoughts expressed, has often been quoted.

It is a pity that the French writer, being long dead, was unable to witness how his wish was ignored by those who claimed to have been inspired by him – the French revolutionaries.

In the Vendée region of France, at the height of the revolution, there was a large peasant uprising, ruthlessly suppressed by the republicans with tens of thousands being killed.

The main ‘crime’ of the rebels was that they refused some of the impositions of the National Convention, especially those regarding freedom of worship.

The peasants just wanted to have their churches and their priests.

Today, we are encouraged to freely express our thoughts provided these conform to the ‘sole thought’ – secularist, liberal and anti-Christian - prevalent in our western societies.

Anyone not following this norm is not tolerated and is at best ridiculed and marginalised.

The intolerance of the supposedly tolerant is indeed beyond bounds!