My biggest issue with theists

[Catholic_Lady]

Soooo, I wasn't really sure whether this belongs in the Religion forum or the Atheism forum, but I guess the admins/mods can move it if it's horribly out of place. 

I have very many religious friends. Mainly Hindus and Christians, but a few Muslims and Jews thrown in there too. Two of these in particular, a Muslim and a Christian, are among my very best friends, and we frequently debate about religion, god, politics, and loads of other controversial topics. We're all very strong minded, and rarely, if ever, do such discussions result in any one of us actually changing any of our stances. But there's one thing in particular that aggravates me: their blatant dislike and disrespect of my country. They both vehemently hate it, and never fail to say so. However, their opinions, right, they're entitled to them. Right? However annoyed, disrespected, or hurt I may feel when they regularly and often tell me they'd rather die than belong to my country, I accept it. 
And then one day.... I did something unimaginable. Unthinkable. I disrespected religion. Not Christianity, not Islam, just religion in general. The idea of a sky daddy. They know I'm atheists, but I told them I celebrate Christmas because it's fun and merry, and they got mad. Said that's a horrible thing to do. Said my country was the one that commercialized Christmas. Said it's about Jesus. So I told them Jesus could go kiss my ass if he wanted me to believe in him. And well, all hell broke loose...   They said I could never do that again. Apparently, however much we disagree and argue, one topic was off limits to disrespect: religion. God. Sky daddy. 

So, my point is, this, I've decided, is the one single thing I dislike the most about theists. That just because religion is above all for them, they expect it to be above everything for us. What if my country is like god to me? Shouldn't they respect it, if they want me to respect their religion. They kept on telling me "Countries aren't the same as god!!" Well, I get it Susan, only one of them ACTUALLY EXISTS. 
And this isn't just about country. It could be my family, my parents, my hometown. All these things could be god to me. So if theists don't want us to be blasphemous, they should learn when to zip it themselves. 

Thoughts?

TL,DR: Theists think religion is above all and blasphemy is a crime, but disrespecting someone else's country, opinions, family (which could be like god to that person) etc is ok because that's not the same as religion. And I think that's hypocritical and dumb. 

PS: This has probably been said countless times before on AF but I didn't wanna necro post. 

PPS: I don't usually disrespect religion in public, this is more of a 'what if'.

Maybe don't paint with such a broad brush?

For the record, I think disrespecting another person's country and family and opinions to their face are just as much dick moves as disrespecting their religious beliefs to their face. Disrespect is disrespect. You can disagree and debate without being disrespectful to the person you are talking to.

I'm pretty sure I know plenty of "theists" who would say the same.