I'd like to add (although, I'm not sure if Saige's article is about the religious/racial wars in Bosnia, et. al, and thus a different topic) that many of the people I've run into who are, say, rather hostile toward Christianity, are so not, in fact, because of actual problems, per se, with the actual religion, but in fact, because of experiences they've had with self-claimed supporters of that religion.
People generally make stereotypes about various religious groups based not only one movies they've seen (hah!) but also, most likely, on people they've encountered (even their own parents) who's actions give lie to the words they speak about what their religion is about.
In spite of this, trying to tell people that they actually need to pay attention to what a religion is really about, in spite of what it's practitioners may actuall do, usually falls on deaf ears.
Ideas are powerful...but often not quite as powerful as the actions of the followers of that idea.