Pawel Pawlikowski

My father's mother was a secular Jew who died in Auschwitz. I only found out as an adult because my father never talked about it. He was a secularist and never defined himself in ethnic terms - partly, I think, because he was scared; partly out of the habit of not talking of such things; partly because he didn't like being defined by other people.

Polish Director

Elif Safak

My readers are surprisingly mixed. I have conservative readers - for instance, women with headscarves - but also many liberal, leftist, feminist, nihilist, environmentalist, and secularist readers. Next to those are mystics, agnostics, Kurds, Turks, Alevis, Sunnis, gays, housewives, and businesswomen.

Turkish Author

Karen Armstrong

Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution, religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem.

English Writer

Pat Buchanan

Secularist justices de-Christianized our country. They invented new rights for vicious criminals as though criminal justice were a game. They tore our country apart with idiotic busing orders to achieve racial balance in public schools.

American Journalist

Secularist is often used in discussions about the role of religion in government and public life.

Public Sphere

Secularists may be religious or not; their key belief is in separating religion from public policy.

Misconception Alert

In some societies, expressing secularist ideas can be controversial or even dangerous.

Cultural Sensitivity

Secularist as an adjective applies to various contexts where religion might be excluded, like education or laws.

Broad Application

Using 'secularist' can signal a neutral or objective position on matters where religion is often involved.

Neutral Stance

Don't confuse secularist with atheist; secularists do not necessarily disbelieve in gods.

Common Misuse

 he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me. But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless. In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people. You don't necessarily know what someone's true value is.