Why he belongs here
Hitchens was a polemicist, not a neutrality machine. That is part of the appeal and part of the reason to read him carefully.
His enduring contribution to this site’s sensibility is the refusal to create protected categories of ideas. Respect for people does not require pretending every claim is equally respectable.
The corresponding responsibility is obvious: if you want the freedom to attack sacred claims, your own claims must remain available for attack too.