I think this is happening wherever in the world, I dont agree of course because the people are being manipulated continuosly and they loose their willpower. In fact some countries get power thanks to the religion, this is a very important skill for such goverments.
In my opinion the people shoud choose their own beliefs and to have freedom of worship. People should be more critical about religion although this might be a an utopian ideal. Religion has as much power as the money has in the world, both of them walk together.
=Cruelty to animals=
In my opinion to speak about cruelty to animals is a controversial topic. For this there exists a wide range of opinions. The most strict people, as vegetarians, always give some reasons to not eat meat from animals, meat, fish and their by-products.
The procedures to slaughter animals are very cruel, therefore they refuse to eat them.
Those in defense think this idea is incorrect because people need to feed, the human is omnivorous and he can eat everything.
On the other hand cruelty to animals means to slaughter animals in parties, for example in the Spanish bullfight. Some people think this is art, some people think this is a slaughter.
But the bullfight attracts a lot of money, business, and tourists and the managers think if the bullfight should be forbidden nobody should eat meat either.
Personally I'm vegetarian and I don't have a problem, but sometimes I think if the vegetable and fruits will be suffering because of this also.