Special treatment because of a religion?

I dont think so.

The Guardian web site has an interesting point of view to religions: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ac_grayling/2006/10/acgrayling.html. I totally agree with the article. Why should anyone consider themselves somehow special compared to others just because they say they chosen to belive in something? I could also say I belive in the Santa Claus or the Allmighty Spaghetti Monster behind my refridgerator but would I get special treatment because of that? No.

A great quote from the article I noticed:
"They [the belivers]claim, on no justifiable ground, a right to special status and special treatment on the sole ground that they have chosen to believe a set of propositions; and they demand that people who do not accept their beliefs and practices should treat these latter in ways that implicitly accept their holder's evaluation of them."

An example of this is the scandal over the Muhammed cartoons a Danish newspaper published in Denmark.

An other example are immigrants in a countries. I don't consider myself a racist person, but I do feel that people coming to live in a country must live according to the rules of the sociaty in that country. They just can't take a day off from work because their religion says so or take a break at work because they have to pray. I don't say they can't take a break at all - just that they have to take the break according to the same rules as everyone else does!

We have to respect each other, but that goes both ways. No-one can expect special treatment because of their faith.

"No one could dream of demanding that political parties be respected merely because they are political parties, or of protecting them from the pens of cartoonists; nor that their members should be. On the contrary. And so it should be for all interest groups and their members, without exception."