Hating religion is different from hating an ethnic group (idea)

I must vehemently disagree with the title of this node. As Millennium stated aptly in an above writeup, Hate is hate.

Do you really believe that hate-mongers care whether it is a religion or a race problem they are dealing with? I certainly hope not, because history has proven otherwise.

It all boils down to xenophobia. Historically, people have had a tendency to fear what they do not understand (or more to the point, what they do not want to understand).

Examples:

• The Crusades: Do you think the Crusaders were more concerned with the fact that their opponents were Muslim or that they were somewhat more brownish in hue than their European cousins? Hard to say, since it was a political war disguised as a war for God. I'm pretty sure only Pope Innocent III knows the answer to that one.
• The Third Reich: Adolf Hitler and his cronies killed millions of Jews (of all ethnicities, mind you). They also killed plenty of Catholics and blacks. All these groups had in common were that they were not white Germans, and were therefore slated for elimination. They also hated Slavs, but hunted them with less determination.
• Ku Klux Klan: These United States based hatemongers are widely known for killing and otherwise discriminating against blacks. What is probably less known is that they behave precisely the same against Catholics and Jews as well. The Klan mostly hunted Catholics because they saw them as foreigners (specifically Irish and Italians, etc...).

Another point I should take issue with is that people, in general, choose their religion. Perhaps for those of us that think about existence and its implications, sure, but that is not the vast majority of the world population. Most people belong to their religions because they were raised into them and haven't given any thought to the alternatives. In highly religious areas of the world, it is even a crime to be anything but the State religion. Afghanistan under the Taleban is a good example of such religious extremism. People who live in "modern" Afghanistan are as Muslim as they are light brown. There is no separation.

In summary, there is no hate but hate itself. I could have cited dozens of obvious examples, but I think the three above are widely known and strong enough to make my point.

Thanks to wharfinger for providing a couple of corrections regarding the Nazis and the Klan that I have integrated into the article.