Respect for Religious Beliefs

In the UK we have had a debate going on for some time regarding state protection of religious viewpoints. There are many beliefs in the world, but it would seem that one type of belief, religious belief, should somehow be protected from criticism.

I recently saw two programmes on the Westboro Baptist Church and their religious beliefs. They picket funerals of American servicemen killed in Iraq, with slogans about how these servicemen will burn in hell. I find this absolutely repulsive and feel that their religious beliefs should be not only criticised, but ridiculed and generally silenced. Yet it would seem to me that the people who say that we should respect religious beliefs are standing up for the "good" christian folk of Westboro Baptist Church. In fact, they are asking me to respect the Westboro Baptist christians, and I find that too much to stomach.

Should we really respect all religious beliefs?

Unfortunately, this is politics, and even though politics is a part of philosophy according to Plato, it doesn't work here. Has to do with free speech I guess. And yeah, those people are scary. And far worse than the picketers are Fred Phelp's actual sermons, and even worse than that are the scary websites they have up.

Good try :) but this does not belong in "Philosophical Literature", it's a religious topic. It also deals with current politics ie: "American servicemen killed in Iraq".