My feeling about all this is that it's a storm in a tea-cup. Julian probably didn't express himself as well as he'd have liked in his original article, which he had to cut back for space considerations, and which had a misleading title slapped on it by the magazine. Maybe he'll think further and find an opportunity to say something about the "New Atheism" that does more justice to his position.

I can assure you, though, that he's not trying to shut anyone up or saying that atheists shouldn't present their case to the public or that he's going to stop doing so himself.

As for working with moderate theists, there are many circumstances in which that's useful. Some of those moderate theists are just as keen as we are to support secularism, the teaching of good science in schools, etc. Richard works with some of these people himself. The idea that it's worthwhile working with moderate theists on a range of issues shouldn't be too controversial. In that context, the last three paras of Williamson's article seem a bit odd.