I think there is a great difference between attacking religion and attacking people, using supposedly academic religious critique as a bludgeon to push forward other agendas. Atheism has traditionally been seen as a leftist cause, in large part because it was identified with people such as Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky and concepts such as anti-imperialism and socialism. Their criticisms were borne in large part out of compassion for the downtrodden and outrage at the role they saw that religious authorities played in perpetuating oppression, and this was admirable. This “New Atheist” movement comes across as quite different. In stark contrast to the atheism of Russell or Chomsky, it seems to be based in large part out of hatred and contempt for religious people themselves. There is little attempt to understand the role that religion plays for people who make up the oppressed and poor around the world, or to understand the humanistic arguments made by actual theologians. It is an atheism for the elite, a new way to sneer down at lesser peoples.

Richard Dawkins and the "New Atheists" Represent the Dark Side of Atheism - PolicyMic Sunday, December 15, 2013 @ 9:10pm