Religion is safe enough in small doses. But in its undiluted, swivel-eyed form, it leads to trouble.

RELIGION is safe enough in small doses. But in its undiluted, swivel-eyed form, it leads to trouble. That, at least, is the general view. And in making his radio documentary We Do Do God, Ed Kessler, the director of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge and one of the busiest choreographers of interfaith dialogue in Britain, admits he set off with that suspicion in the back of his mind.

But after talking to some of the more strictly observant – Jewish Haredi, Muslim Salafis and Christian Pentecostalists – Ed tells me that he found that they were “neither defensive, nor detached from society. Their fervour does not mean they are foaming at the mouth. They flourish because they are confident in their identity and their way of life attracts those who struggle with questions about how they should lead their lives.”

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