I think that religion isn't the problem in most cases. I think mostly it's just people using it as an excuse to be the assholes that they already are. I don't think religion is the root of the problem, is my point. It's just a convenient and common way to express that problem. Communist Russia and China had lots of bad stuff going on too, without religion. I think it's more about ignorance and fear of new/different ideas. Religion often takes advantage of these things, probably initially to solve them, though through laziness of the practitioners (as well as the teachers) they just become more common, more thoroughly entrenched in people.