An anonymous and anomalous self-styled Progressive has come flying into our attention on a winged pig.

We paid attention to what he [?] had to say because he is also an Atheist. And we were very pleasantly surprised.

Calling himself only ‘The Candid Progressive” he posted an introduction to his Handbook for Infidels with most of which – to our astonishment and delight  – we agree.

We wonder how many Obama-voters he will win over with his Handbook. If on the issue of Islam alone he were to bring about the enlightenment of the Democratic Party there would be a great rise of hope for America.

Here are extracts from his introduction, all the parts we agree with. He starts off speaking of himself in the third person:

The Candid Progressive is too happy to be a hater. But not so blissed-out as to be unperturbed by a barbaric, woman-hating, freedom-squelching ideology with hordes of violence-prone True Believers, who are just aching to drag us all back into the Seventh Century and make us slaves to ancient superstition. That sort of jangling, in-your-face insanity does manage to puncture my cozy little bubble of bourbon-fueled bonhomie from time to time — and from my (relatively) civilized, femme-loving, liberty-addicted perspective, that whole scenario seems more than a little f’d up.

Toss in the fact that I consider religious superstition to be the greatest impediment to intellectual, moral, and spiritual enlightenment, and the result is a politically incorrect book [his Handbook] that treats Islam with exactly as much respect as it deserves, and gives faint-hearted multiculturalists the “vapors”. …

This is a critique of an ideology — an ideology that is inherently hostile to democracy, free speech, freedom of the press, women’s rights and other fundamental human rights — principles that all progressives should support wholeheartedly.

Do progressives stand for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, or freedom at all? Perhaps it is because he thinks they do that so clear-sighted an observer of Islam continues to think of himself as a progressive and a liberal. As he goes on, he expresses more thoughts that are out of harmony with the Left in general.

Islam’s brutal subjugation of women should be reason enough to make all liberals unite in heated opposition to it. (And the fact that this has not happened indicates that something very strange and unlikely is going on here, between Islam and the political left.)

The idea that Muslims should somehow be exempt from having their ideology criticized (in a way that Catholics, or Christian Creationists, for instance, are not) is a bigoted position, because it’s based upon the assumption that they are too uncivilized, or too immature, to handle it. It’s actually more respectful to treat them as adults, like everyone else, and expect them to deal with criticism without reacting violently, just like everyone else.

Some cultures are clearly far more enlightened and humane than others. A brief look at what goes on in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan makes this fact obvious. Cultural relativism is a lie …

Political correctness is totally counter to the spirit of free speech, and prevents the discussion of important truths. It might make superficial people feel more comfortable, but it has serious, real-life consequences. Political correctness is an unacceptable hindrance for serious people who want to see the world become a better place.

It emerges that it is his atheism – the rational part of his bundle of beliefs – which has guided him aright in his understanding of how evil an ideology Islam is:

Ultimately, the problem here is religion in general — a problem of people accepting “revealed” truths without sufficient evidence, and confidently acting upon those beliefs, regardless of the consequences. Magic-thinking still causes a vast amount of misery around the world, and prevents the development of more enlightened intellects and moral codes. That being said, no other religion in the 21st Century continues to promote medieval barbarism on such an epic scale as Mohammed’s “spiritual” legacy. Islam is religion taken to its most diabolic extreme. …

Yes, yes.

There’s a lot of confusion in the West regarding Islam — especially among progressives, because we’re only programmed to distrust religious fanatics of the Bible-thumping, evolution-denying, queer-hating American variety.

So he knows progressives are “programmed”. But he clearly thinks for himself. He could easily come to the realization that those religious fanatics are only a fringe minority among conservatives and Republicans.

The others, we’re told, are really just victims of something or other. But somehow the evidence confronting us from around the world doesn’t seem to match up with the bland reassurances of the politically-correct types, or the passionate denials of dissembling Muslims. …

If you get your info regarding Islam from NPR, CNN, the BBC, and other PC venues, you’ve heard repeatedly since 9/11 that the violence, misogyny, and mayhem are not inherent to the religion itself, but are the results of unrelated “cultural” quirks. … We’re told that the suicide bombings, the “honor” killings, the stonings, the female genital mutilations, the acid attacks, the forced marriages of underage girls, the slavery in royal households, the judicial amputations, the murderous rioting over cartoons, the virulent anti-Semitism, the hostility towards outsiders, the Sunni/Shiite massacres, the public hangings of homosexuals, the beheadings of blasphemers and apostates, and the murder of outspoken infidels in Western cities are all the results of, well…something else. Maybe it’s poverty. A lack of education. “Cultural” hangovers from a barbaric past. “Tribal” traditions. Political oppression. European and American imperialism. The PC types have all sorts of theories. The only thing they seem to agree upon is that it has nothing to do with Islam. Or, at most, they’ll tell us that these horrors are the products of a tragic (and apparently commonplace) misreading of what is actually an enlightened, peace-loving religion. A religion that rejects these nightmarish behaviors in the strongest possible terms…but, regrettably, can’t seem to go five minutes without being hijacked by brutal, misogynistic thugs.

But in reality, Islam is a nightmare religion. (If it’s being done properly, anyway.) In fact, the more you study it, the more horrifying it becomes. And the more obvious it becomes that the “radicals”, “extremists”, and “fundamentalists” are practising Islam exactly the way the prophet Mohammed intended. The way he himself practised it, only without the aid of modern weaponry or fuel-laden jetliners. And the more you learn about it, the more apparent it becomes that this barbaric, maladaptive religion should no longer be allowed to maintain the air of respectability it currently enjoys in the more PC venues of Western society. It’s time for all of us to start being brutally honest regarding this brutal ideology.

We’re in for a fight, whether we want it or not, and whether it’s to be fought with words or bullets. So we might as well get busy trying to neutralize our enemy’s perverted program with vocal, determined opposition. With an informed public that values basic freedoms more than platitudes and political correctness. With governments that vigorously defend free speech and freedom of the press against hostile, intolerant, would-be theocrats. With a sensible program of foreign policy, based upon a realistic appraisal of Islam and the threat it poses …

All good. But we pause our applause when, in the next breath, his unthinking leftism seems to be popping out:

With alternative energy sources that allow us to stop funding the enemy. …

If by “alternative  energy sources” he means American oil rather than Middle Eastern, then yes. If he means “green energy” from sun and wind, then we hope he’ll think harder about it.

We need to get serious about putting a halt to the Islamization of Western Europe, and other parts of the infidel world. And to do this, we have to abandon political correctness and openly put our ideological foes on notice.

If the Left were really to abandon political correctness, wouldn’t most of their ideological teddy-bears and comfort blankets have to go into the incinerator? Such as green energy, affirmative action, nuclear disarmament, community organizing, tolerance of illegal immigration, letting Iran become nuclear armed, regulating business, Keynesian economics, embracing Russia, aiding North Korea, intoning that anyone who objects to what Obama is doing to America is a racist … a full list would be very long. The Department of Homeland Security would have to go, as the people who run it don’t believe in a “homeland” and are not keeping it secure. The Department of Justice would have to start prosecuting the Black Panthers when they break the law, and stop breaking the law itself by selling guns to the Mexican drug cartels. The White House would have to stop issuing executive orders that break the law … Again a list of what needs to change would be very long.

But soon we feel moved to applaud again:

Instead of helping Muslims to feel more comfortable in their hellish religion, by pretending to respect it, we need to hang out a great big sign that reads:

Barbaric Iron Age ideologies are not welcome here!

This has nothing to do with “racism”. This is about a hostile ideology … It’s not about “bigotry” or “prejudice” or “Islamophobia”, either. It’s about the survival of the most enlightened cultures the world has ever produced. Cultures that some very clever people went to a lot of trouble to develop and foster over the last few centuries — braving the fiery wrath of our own native brand of religious zealotry, until Christianity could finally be defanged. It’s about defending the progressive ideals we supposedly stand for …

If only he would drop that word “progressive”!  Instead of “progressive ideals”, why not “the ideals on which the Republic was founded”?

… against a threat that’s very real. Against enemies who are very, very determined. And well-funded. And willing to kill, and die, for the most retrograde ideology on earth.

If ever there was a “good fight”, this is it. Not even World War II involved such a clear-cut case of good vs. evil – or had so much hanging in the balance, in terms of the future well-being of mankind. … We need to halt the steady erosion of our essential liberties…

Right! The liberties the Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution …

… and vigorously re-assert our right to speak plainly and openly about important issues, even if this means “offending” our ideological enemies — who have no qualms about giving offense to us, on a regular basis.

But, ultimately, we need to laugh this absurd religion right off the face of the earth. We need to tell the True Believers exactly what we think, and why we think it.

This life-sucking ideology has survived for fourteen centuries because it’s been sheltered from criticism by the combined forces of violence (on their part) and [in recent times] political correctness (on our part). …

We need to create an environment in which myth-based religions such as Islam are constantly being confronted by reason, skepticism, and reality. These religions have bullied, brutalized, and befuddled mankind for centuries. It’s time to fight back!

And Islam, the biggest, meanest bully of them all, is just begging to get its ass kicked. So, let’s make that happen, on a global scale. Let’s show the True Believers that we infidels still have a little grit and determination [and] … armed with reason and science, and firmly grounded in reality, [we] can prevail, over ignorant zealots motivated by ancient superstition.

Well and fearlessly spoken!

If you visit his website here, you will find more pictures of this sort which help make his case.