.....................You may consider me intolerant because I am against ancient tribal lifestyle where women have less rights thab men or when family finds it justified to kill a woman only because she chose to life differently than they like. Also, I´m talking about things like making it hard for other people to have different religious views - think death sentences for converting, ban on women to marry outside faith or bombing people because they go to church rather than mosque....................

Ethics has nothing to do with religion. You don´t need to believe in god to live a responsible life. After all, people have been establishing laws and rules of co-existence long before Jews invented the idea of one god, long before the idea caught on to give rise to Christianity and way longer before an Arabian sheperd came up with the idea to profit from adjusting the Jewish religion to his own needs

Ethics has nothing to do with religion. You don´t need to believe in god to live a responsible life. After all, people have been establishing laws and rules of co-existence long before Jews invented the idea of one god, long before the idea caught on to give rise to Christianity and way longer before an Arabian sheperd came up with the idea to profit from adjusting the Jewish religion to his own needs

Daydreamer you are pointing your finger at people who call themselves believers and call their prophet some deceitful Arabic shepherd.

You forget the realities of the world we live in and the fact that we are bereaved of the knowledge to have a peek at the big picture. There are questions but no one has the full answer that is why some people look for answers in the metaphysics and religion.

I don´t believe in Mohammad either but I will not call him fraudelent, indecent or fake because I know that mine is just one in the pool of opinions. And the number one rule to keep the pool peaceful for everyone is not to stir it with defiant statements.

Accordingly, just like all the countries around the world, I recognize Mohammad as a prophet of a legitimate religion. The same goes for Buddha, Jesus Christ and Moses. Although I may not believe in them they have my full respect. When entering their temples which are also the products of a sophisticated civilization behind them I abide by the rules designated by the communities of those temples and pay utmost attention in order not to disturb them. Any civilized person must act like that. I am sorry if you find this offensive but I geniunely believe that you should not target a whole religion like that in a public forum. Nevertheless, a discussion on the role of women in Islamic countries could be opened. As you see, there are vast differences among Islamic countries. Still, the women in those countries do not blame the religion in any way. They consider the role given to them as acceptable. After all this is a choice, a social choice to be exact. The other options are also on the table. It would be the easiest thing to switch to a more Western life style. Some countries are doing that by choice and some are not. 

That´s the path you chose, not me, I don´t feel obligued to respect somebody who didn´t mind having sex with minors or giving women lower status than men. Of course, I am aware of the historical role the people you call prophets had, but I don´t consider them prophets per se, to do that, I´d have to believe they actually were sent by God, whose existence I do not find credible. I do not render it rude to criticise religions, politics or public people. Quite contrary, I think criticism makes them feel not as ominscent as they´d like to be.

Of course some people find the role imposed on them acceptable, even some slaves thought they did not deserve more. And it is hardly a choice if you don´t have any in practise. Not being able to choose your clothes, your lifestyle or your career (or lack of it) makes you slave to the culture. Coming to terms with things you cannot change is logical in that case. but it doesn´t mean that I, coming from a free country, can condemn the conditions these women live in.

Basically, you could let a Muslim woman to express her opinion about Western culture and Western women. You would be surprized at the level of critiicism and disdain in her words. They detest your life style and find it inhuman. Now let´s do the math, aren´t you feeling that way about her lifestyle?  What good will come out of targeting religions? You will call their prophet fraudulent and they will call you God knows what. Like always, the best policy is respect....

I wouldn´t be surprised, after all, they don´t know any better than what they have. If, from birth, you´re made to believe you don´t have the same rights only because you don´t have a penis and, if you´re made to believe it´s god´s will, and if you are aware that opposing these believes will result in serious consequences (sometimes death), you will learn to treat it as something normal. Have a look at presidential elections in Belarus. Do you think everyone is against Lukashenko? Do you think everyone claims the elections were fair? And then, do you think everyone who disagrees dares to speak openly about it?

The funny thing is, if you exclude the "because god said so" element, the way they´re treated is degrading and unjustified. Please feel free to disagree with me but never have I heard one logical argument why quranian (is this an adjective?) or biblical treatment of women should be considered right. And that´s my biggest problem with religion, people follow something without wondering if it makes sense. Sure, if they can choose other options but don´t do it - fine. The trouble with Islam is that often these people are not given the choice, and this is where religion is something more than just a way of looking at the world. If a western woman, who is free to choose the lifestyle she wants, decides to convert to Islam, it´s her thing. I may not understand why she´d like to give up her rights, but...that´s just my opinion. She should have the right to believe in anything she wants. Just like it´s pointless to dictate who adult people should have sex with. You may not like their choices but you accept them. It is not so easy to accept that people in some parts of the world do not have that choice, that people are sentenced to death for homosexualism, for disobeying their parents or for deciding not to follow a religion. Guess which religion I am talking about?

Yeah, you may argue that what happens thousands of kilometres away from me is of no concern to me. But it´s not true. these people come here, to europe, to the place that spent a lot of time fighting for human rights and they want to ruin it by taking along their bondage. And then, when they violate our laws, they shout about our intolerance for their barbaric ways (because they are barbaric for us). What? A brother goes to jail for beating his siter who went out with an infidel (remember the girl from Harry Potter)? How dare filthy, sinful Europeans question other religion´s rules? A group of Muslims feeling free to rape Europeans because they do not dress like rubbish bags and are hence considered prostitutes? Police can hardly do anything in order not to insult followers of Mohammet...and so on, and so forth. So, I hope you can see now where I´m coming from, taking a stand against religion. Why don´t I target Christianity? I would and I do in situations where some people use it to impose idiotic laws on others of use it to disrespect the law. If people were not free to criticise religion because of wrongly understood respect, we´d still be in the Middle Ages in Europe. We´re not and I hope the eatsern world will end their Middle Ages as well. Meanwhile, let me speak up about my rights as European citizen to protect the system generations have been fighting for against barbaric tribal ways.

I refuse to discuss arguments of "you have too little knowledge to know anything." It´s a pointless way to discredit somebody, you can always say the sources were biased, the knowledge was too little only because they do not agree with what you have to say. Looking at culture and religion, it would be false to assume the latter originated irrespective of the former and/or didn´t include elements of it. Hence, it promotes ideas and behaviours that are out of date. 

Daydreamer you are pointing your finger at people who call themselves believers and call their prophet some deceitful Arabic shepherd.

You forget the realities of the world we live in and the fact that we are bereaved of the knowledge to have a peek at the big picture. There are questions but no one has the full answer that is why some people look for answers in the metaphysics and religion.

Basically, you could let a Muslim woman to express her opinion about Western culture and Western women. You would be surprized at the level of critiicism and disdain in her words. They detest your life style and find it inhuman. Now let´s do the math, aren´t you feeling that way about her lifestyle?  What good will come out of targeting religions? You will call their prophet fraudulent and they will call you God knows what. Like always, the best policy is respect....

You have posted a long reply, I will try to answer statement by statement in multiple posts:

You are saying:

"If people were not free to criticise religion because of wrongly understood respect, we´d still be in the Middle Ages in Europe. We´re not and I hope the eatsern world will end their Middle Ages as well."

I have no objections about criticizing religions. My concern is insulting religions and their believers. What would you do if you were the commander of the US rangers facing the Indians for the first time. Would you say: "Come on ye fools, there is no manitu, run for your lives..."?  You and I know (or guess) that Manitu does not exist. Nevertheless, Manitu is a product of their own culture with all the good and bad ingredients. If they didn´t believe in Manitu and opted for the Christian faith, their lives would not be any different unless of course, they were influenced by another culture. I conider this presumed necessity for unconditional influence of one culture on others as idiotic. We need Manitu, we need Allah, God, Shaman and you name it what. These are cultural products and they are destined to find new meanings as their host civilizations advance. For example, Arabs would probably not be very different from how they are now did Islam not spread among them. They would still be Arabs with a different God. It is their culture that determined the general outlook of Islam. 

As for the answer of you statement: We would not still be in the Middle Ages if we respected religions. I would agree with you more if you said, we atheists would not exist in such abundance, if we were in the Middle Ages.

Let me put it in a nut shell. I am not against criticism whether it be through mockery or irony. I enjoy reading satire myself. 

To set the record straight, I am against the notion that one civilization or a community has the correct answers to all the questions we face in life. Arabs are living in a different world and their values differ dramatically from yours. They perceive life quite differently and like any culture would naturally, they would like to hold on to their own values and enjoy the freedom of shaping their society according to their own perceptions. From your point of view, there are gross violations of female rights and thereby an acute set of restrictions on personal freedoms. You would have this problem with people from an Islamic country living in your country. You would expect them to obey the social values of the host culture as much as possible. But come on we are talking about people who live in their own land with minimal interaction with what is supposed to be more advanced civilizations. Just like we expect them respect us when they get in touch with us in our own environment, they are entitled to expecting respect from us.

No, we´re talking about people who immigrate west and want to abide by their laws that contradict western ones. But, even if they stay in their homeland, I refuse to applaud what I consider violation of human rights. The same way I am against slavery, even if it doesn´t take place in my homeland.

This is very basic.  We are not talking about Mohammad and a few of his friends. We are talking about a choice made around 1.5 billion people. There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world. These two religions together constitute majority of people living in the world. When you condemn both Christians and Muslims you are condemning almost the entire humanity. 

Again, the word "choice" is the key here. Somebody who faces possibility of death for converting from Islam, doesn´t have a choice in practice. You may be not bothered by the fact that people have no choice, I am.

I would like to live in this world in a peaceful setting and what harms the peace most is the prescriptive approach. Don´t tell people what they ought to believe in or what they ought to do. This is being done in a large scale and every attempt made to ridicule their religion brings them together to stand strong against a common enemy. Don´t show enmity if you don´t want to arouse feelings of hatred uselessly.

I would love to live in an ideal world as well, world where differences between religions mean different praying times/positions, different kinds of food eaten and different names to call different gods used. Alas, folklore is not the only difference and do not expect me to ever accept it. Much as I understand where you´re coming from, I beg to differ. Just like I previously said, ridiculing a subject makes it no longer untouchable, no longer a taboo and demythicises it. Also, movements like feminism need to know they have support outside and those who believe are right must be shown there is a vast number of people who find their ways offensive. I am not telling people to believe or disbelieve anything, believe whatever you want, just don´t hurt other people by imposing your choice on them.

I´ve never had a problem with people of any religion as long as we agree on a common ground of respect for each other´s rights. The fact that some of my friends do not eat pork does not make them barbarian, does it? But if somebody not only believes in but also practices gender inequality or imposing choice of religion, thaere is no way I can accept it. Also, if people shout about having to be respected but do not respect those who disagree with them is something of a hypocrisy for me.

Ok, I think I´ve said enough, i hope I managed to say it clearly enough that I do not care about religions but people. Respect for people comes before respect for ideas, which can and should be subject to ridicule if they contradict the values you treasure. I´m too tired and too pregnant (8 weeks to go! yay!)to dwell on it anymore. I do not expect you to agree with me, it is not my intention to belittle anyone who chose Islam, it is my stand against imposed religions and social roles. If i failed to convey the message, I won´t be surprised, it wouldn´t be the first time