...but two of your observations -- that was a very good post, btw -- beg for remark.

Regarding the children encouraged to fast to get some idea about Ramadan: Muslim children are not encouraged but are actively discouraged, and even forbidden, from fasting like adults during Ramadan. The teacher was exhibiting a spectacular ignorance of the religion about which he was trying to instruct. This is part of the reason so many schools say "no religion at all": if all must be included or excluded, exclusion is much easier because it guarantees no one will be left out (equal pain) and also precludes dumb things like this.

Regarding the religious beliefs of judicial nominees: The objection of legislators to the nominations, if you read their questions carefully, is not to the fact that a nominee has religious beliefs, or the content of those beliefs, but to the willingness either verbally expressed or demonstrated by the nominee to allow his or her beliefs to interfere while acting as a secular judge ruling on secular law in secular courts.

Regards--
Mary Anne