I believe in freedom of religion. Everyone should be entitled to believe what they want to believe, and worship as they want to. I can also understand why members of religious groups might want to display symbols to show their faith, such as wearing certain garb (yamakas, shadors), markings on their body etc(ashes on foreheads). However when one religion tries to force their beliefs on others, that is where it should stop. That destroys the "freedom" part of freedom of religion.
The problem is that so many religions also believe theirs is the only true one and that everyone else needs to be converted (or "saved") by believing the same way. I think that this inclination of so many religions to want to proselytize others is driven by their leader's desire to expand to be able to get more money and power. A larger church with more members allows the leaders to exert more influence on the community and live better. Even Catholic leaders who took an oath of poverty seem to want to grow to be able to gain power and trappings of wealth, if not personal wealth.
In strict Moslem countries, drinking of alcohol is forbidden, women are treated as property, and must wear outfits that cover all of most of their body. That might be OK if the laws only applied to believers. However they enforce those laws against "non believers" as well. In the US, the so-called Christians believe that their prayers should be done in public such as schools, city council meetings and football games to help convert people to their way of thinking. They say they want prayer in schools -- but they really mean their prayers -- they wouldn't want Buddhist, Confucian, Moslem, or even Roman Catholic prayers in the schools. If I don't want my child exposed to their prayers, they say "tough" --it will make your children better to say the prayers ("save" them?). Many of those so-called Christian religions also want to impose restrictions on Gays, eliminate birth control, and stop abortions. I'd have not problem if a religion refused to marry gay people, but why must they prevent gay members of other religions from marrying? I would think it appropriate if a religion told their members to not practice birth control or have an abortion. However, why must they impose those restrictions on others?
Early Christians had ceremonies to marry gays, and birth control/abortion wasn't an issue in the Catholic Church until Thomas Aquinas in 1250AD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas#Goal_of_human_life
Aquinas dramatically changed Christianity from a role of passivity and love to a much more aggressive form. He put a high value on human life, including the fetus, but at the same time believed that all heretics should be killed. He also introduced the concept of a "just war" which then allowed Christians to make war on other religions to purge the world of heretics. None of this, of course, was part of Christ's teachings, but through complex forms of reasoning, Aquinas was able to justify his conclusions. The leaders of the Catholic church at the time wanted to hear this sort of reasoning. They wanted to spread the religion further, they wanted more babies, and also wanted to kill or make war on opposing religions, so Aquinas was honored and made into a saint.
This article in Malaysia describes some of the complications involved in that country where the Moslem's have a majority and want to impose their beliefs on others: http://m.thestar.com.my/Story.aspx?fls={FDD6D886-5EC0-4D71-9486-813819AB0DB3}
It sounds terrible --but I think it is just a case of one religion trying to compete with others.
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