A distintion without a difference.
Witch-hunting has historically been a religious avocation. I know of no instances of Atheists burning Witches at the stake, etc.
Salem, MA, like most communities in that area and era were Puritan communities, with all aspect of life there suffused with the prevailing religious views, including the secular officials and the laws they enforced.
That members of the church sought to end the madness is very much to their credit, and I freely applauded them for it. But one cannot pretend that the Witch-hunts were not religiously motivated. Outside of religion, there was no basis for Witch-hunting in the first place.
My examples are not intended as a reflection on all of Christianity, any more than the Taliban is representative of all of Islam. But they are illustrative of the excesses that some radical extremist fundy movements are capable of, which is what I was addressing.
Not so. There are now, and were then, many cults (and cults are not religions) who regularly do awful things, just for fun.
If you look into modern-day equivalents of witch hangings, you will find that youth gangs, practitioners of Santaria, etc. are responsible for 'ritual' murders and mutilations.
If you study early Salem, you will find the population in general -- and the secular authorities in particular -- were not homogeneously "Puritan." (Indeed, there were few Puritans there. The Pilgrims and their fellow religionists were Separatists, not Puritans. The Separatists wanted to be left alone to practice their religion; they were not particularly interested in "imposing" it on others.)
I seem to recall several years ago a certain atheist with a funny moustache killing about six million people. If I am mistaken about this, consider a certain short Chinese guy named Mao and what he did to his people. Or that Russian guy. And so on.
Say what you will, people. You can't stereotype "fundamentalists" as also being "violent" or "intolerant", whether they be Christian, Islamic, atheistic, agnostic, or apathetic. Some people are evil, regardless of religious affiliation.