that Murray's support for free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting and the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks was "really just a ploy for far-right entryism". In 2019, an article in Social Policy Review described Murray's views as a kind of "mainstreamist" ideology that defies easy categorization as extremist while remaining "entangled with the far right". Critics accuse Murray of promoting far-right conspiracy theories, including the Great Replacement theory, the Eurabia conspiracy theory and the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory. However, he has indicated that he dislikes the term "Cultural Marxism". Rebuttal by Murray Murray has contended that he is frequently mislabelled politically, and that the mainstream right are unfairly conflated with the far-right in modern political discourse: he wrote in 2020 that in modern politics "up is down, [and] right is far-right". In another Spectator article in August 2019, Murray again criticised what he perceived as the overuse of terms like "far-right", this time in reference to commentators, saying that since the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote "there has been an acceleration in claimed sightings [of the far right] and a blurring of the definitions". He contended that this was "wrong not just because it means that perfectly decent people are maligned, but also because distinctly dangerous groups are confused with harmless ones". Personal life Murray was a friend of the journalist Christopher Hitchens. After Hitchens' death, Murray praised him as a writer, thinker, and speaker. Murray has described himself as atheist, having been an Anglican until his twenties. However, he has also described himself variously as a cultural Christian and a Christian atheist, believing that Christianity is an important influence on British and European culture. Works . . . . . . . . . References External links Murray's writings at the Gatestone Institute Why the Conservative frontbench broke off relations with Douglas Murray. Opinion piece by Paul Goodman at Conservative Home 1979 births Living people Writers from London British atheists English people of Scottish descent People educated at Eton College People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British political writers British critics of Islam Lambda Literary Award winners British gay writers British LGBT journalists British social commentators Critics of multiculturalism English atheists Former Anglicans People educated at West Bridgford School Anti-Islam sentiment in the United Kingdom 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists 21st-century LGBT people Fox News people