Hate the belief, not the believer

[robvalue]

The way I look at it is indoctrination can produce a type of diminished responsibility. In severe cases it's equivalent to mental abuse. This leaves the person not entirely in their right mind, through no fault of their own.

So to me it's a matter of assessing how much responsibility lies with the person, and how much can be accounted for by indoctrination. Peer pressure, and even physical coercion, will also be factors in a heavily religious society.

Further to that, using religion as a general excuse for actions is unacceptable to me. You are still making the choice to act a certain way. Religious beliefs are arbitrary, and so to say it's ok to follow one kind of belief and act on it is to say that every possible action is ok. That is ridiculous, so I hold people accountable for their actions, regardless of belief, but minus any diminished responsibility factors. Just giving a reason that it's "part of your religion" is like saying its part of a fairy tale, I'm not interested.