Similarly, secular systems can be liberal, peaceful, rational, and protective of the rights of women, children, minorities, and people of different races and/or orientations. But they too, do not have to be.

A look at the history of various communist states, the European monarchies, or even our own American democracy with its disenfranchisement of blacks, women, Native Americans, the glbt community, etc, for the vast majority of its existence goes to prove that religion is not alone in having to deal with the evils Hitchens elucidates.

Humans are pack animals, and like most packs we naturally establish hierarchies. We stake out our territory and defend it so that we will have access to the resources we need to ensure the survival of the pack (and thus the survival of the individuals who live in the pack).

The reason we need laws to deal with violence, whether based on need, greed, or intolerance, is because humans are prone to be violent. The reason we have laws to maintain human and civil rights is because humans are prone not to give those rights to others, particularly on the basis of gender, orientation, race, and tribal (or ethnic or national) affiliation.

The best of religion also works against those evils that Hitchens mentions.

Among the verses of the Qu'ran we find:

4:135 O you who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God's claim takes precedence over either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort the truth, behold, God is indeed aware of all that you do!

5:8 O you who believe! For the sake of God stand firmly to uphold justice and let not hatred towards other people impel you to deviate from justice. Act justly, for this is indeed akin to piety.

2:208 O you who believe! take to the path of peace and do not follow in the footsteps of Satan.

2:177 True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the East or the West - but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and the scriptures, and the prophets; and spends his wealth - however much he himself may cherish it - upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage. Those who are constant in prayer, and give regular charity, and keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God.

4:36 And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. Be good to parents, and to your kindred, and to orphans, and the needy, and into the neighbor who is of kin and the neighbor who is not of kin, and to your fellow traveler and the wayfarer you do not know and those under your care and control. Lo! God loves not such as are proud and boastful,

3:195 I will not suffer to be lost the work of any of you whether male or female. You proceed one from another

And the Prophet said:

"Shall I tell you of something more excellent in degree than fasting and alms giving and prayers? It is to promote peace." (reported in Muslim, Abu Daud, and Ibn Majah)

"A believer in God is he who is not a danger to the life or property of any other." (reported in Bukhair, Tirmidhi and Nisai)

Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. (From the Farewell Sermon as reported in Muslim)

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white. (From the Farewell Sermon)

"Treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers." (from the Farewell Sermon)