`  :The quoted fragment in ::*Dawkins has ardently opposed the inclusion of intelligent design in science education, describing it as ``not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one``. :has no subject and no verb, so grammatically it is not a complete sentence. MOS:LQ says: ``If the fragment communicates a complete sentence, the period can be placed inside. The period should be omitted if is in the middle of a sentence.`` That is unambiguous. The key issue is complete sentence here. Now, when a subject (``it``) and a verb (``is``) would be added to the fragment, it would become a complete sentence, and the punctuation could be pulled inside the quotation marks. It would then go like ::*Dawkins has ardently opposed the inclusion of intelligent design in science education, arguing that ``it is not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one.`` :Hope this helps. Cheers -   `