Religious respect?

Does your religion deserve respect? I'm sure you feel that it does, but you need to consider yourself a bit biased. 

Imagine you and your neighbor are of different faiths - you are a devout catholic, he is an equally devout Islamist. You KNOW he is wrong in his beliefs, and that his ignorant unwillingness to know Christ the savior promises him an eternity in hell after his death. But you smile and wave. He looks at you, and with the same conviction, feels and KNOWS that your stupidity in not understanding and abiding by the tenets of the Qur'an is a sentence to eternal torture of the same ilk. And he smiles and waves back. Who is right? Can you both be right? Can you respect the person and not the belief? Of course you can (But no worries, in this scenario both are good people who happen to be deluded by theology).

A belief system does not automatically receive respect from the world simply for existing, or for having a large number of adherents. Comments and dialogue that disparage your belief system, when based on fact, are perfectly appropriate. Ideas are NOT people. Your offense to this challenge is not an entitlement, it is a sign of weakness and an inability to defend your position based on anything other than faith and conjecture. Rational minds deal with facts and articulate questioning is a method of testing the validity of a belief system, religions the world around fail this test repeatedly and predictably. So no, your religion does not get automatic respect. And no, it is not a personal attack. Get over yourself.