Comment 17 by jameshogg :

Sorry, I really have to point this out.

There is no such thing as "militant secularism" or, in other words, the so-called secularism that Mao and Stalin imposed. And the best way to prove so is the following.

I mostly agree with that but I would like to point out that that argument is not different from what a Christian or Muslim would say when we talk about all the harm that religion has done. I've heard this argument from Christians many times in person and on blogs: "you can't blame Christianity for the Inquisition because the people that ran the Inquisition weren't really Christians. Christianity is about love." or from Muslims "You can't blame Islam for 9/11 because terrorists aren't really Muslims, they abuse Islam for their own selfish purpose but in reality Islam forbids killing innocents"

If we let Atheists/Secularists off the hook for the crimes of Mao and Stalin then if we are going to be consistent we would let Christians off for the crimes of the Inquisition.