Is religion private or public?

If practicing a religion is allowed and encouraged in most countries, atheists should not be singled out because refusing to submit to a religious belief is a way of expressing one’s convictions, too. When former President George W. Bush said:

he was dangerous for a small part of the population who were being stigmatized by his statements. And such words lead people to think that they can have an opinion about someone else’s beliefs and openly criticize them. If we imitated Bush we could say that Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims... are not citizens but we would not become more intelligent, and we would of course be wrong.

This is probably because of such remarks that people nowadays refuse to say they have a religion or which religion they belong to. People have become more and more intolerant and this is quite paradoxical as religion is supposed to teach respect, understanding and tolerance. So, what used to be commonly accepted in the past fifty years is now banned from our conversations and religious topics are now debated in private. Where all religions should unite and work together to make a better world, they stand against each other firmly believing in their own superiority.

Another reason why religion is becoming more and more a private issue is because it is often associated with wars and conflicts. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants were separated by a wall during the Troubles and thousands of people died because they were enemies and stood firm on their demands for years and years on. Even though wars of religion have always existed, they are now passed continuously on television and social networks and it is difficult to ignore the consequences of fanatics who kill for their beliefs whereas one of the most important principles of religion is: