the individual. Religion is the guardian of depth, as it is the guardian of belief. We habitually talk of a "deeply held" belief or conviction. In an inbuilt deference to religion among the most ardent secularizers, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens regularly use the phrase "deeply held convictions" or "deeply held belief[s]." It is not difficult to spot the old Kantian distinctions between believing ( glauben ), opining ( meinen ), and knowing ( wissen ). Religious belief is defined as a process of "holding something to be true" or Frwahrhalten that is not open to verification. Contemporary legislation relies on a dusty old Kantian script. Belief is a kind of thinking that comes to us as a call, or command. This is why it qualifies as hyperthinking: a thought so strong that it qualifies as an identity category, akin to sexuality or ethnicity, in contemporary British and European law. Belief is conjured as a form of thinking that is entirely spurious and uncontained -- but that takes to us as surely as our sexuality or the color of our skin. Belief is a form of thought so strong that it appears that it has chosen us, rather than that we have chosen it. Belief is a tolerated heteronomy: indeed a heteronomy to be respected and cherished. Heteronomy is enshrined in legislation which admits no other law than constitutional law. No wonder that there continues to be such hysteria about sharia . The threat of sharia crystallizes the institutionalized heteronomy