Through mechanisms like blasphemy and similar taboo-enforcement concepts, religious ideation has, historically, very much gotten a free pass in the marketplace of ideas.

Only with the start of the modern scientific era did it gradually become possible for religious ideology to be questioned, even provisionally and tentatively. I date that roughly to Newton's time. Also, philosophy largely broke out of religious constraints beginning around that time with Spinoza and others espousing less-than-orthodox notions of the meaning of life and of transcendence of the human condition.

The "free pass" has eroded at an accelerating rate until only religious fundamentalists have held the line, and even they have been staggering under the burden.

The rise of so-called "new atheism" in the past couple of generations has accelerated this.

As a deconvert from Christian fundamentalism, the open ridicule and contempt of people like Hitchens and Dawkins was scandalizing and shocking to me at first. Partly because I understood the mindset of my former handlers and knew that they would receive this as utter disrespect. In fundamentlism, there never must be heard a discouraging word. To express doubt or even honest questions, is actually an existential threat.

I came to see, though, that this is the only way to break through what a wag on another site once called "the FundaShield of Determined Ignorance". Sometimes people with an overly elevated view of their own thinking can only have those views shaken by total deconstruction and social approbation.

Here in the Netherlands its not done to question a stranger's religious principles, it's considered quite rude to start talking to people about their religious convictions. Between friends it's different, and there are public debates occasionally which you can choose to go to.

Our elected officials tend to come from a wide range of backgrounds, adhere to about a dozen different political parties ranging from right wing through to socialist to greens to an old people's party. Similarly they have a range of religious beliefs.

In the USA, I would describe it this way. Christians get to throw their weight around because they have the numbers. No religion gets a free pass in other people's minds, because so many of them believe in the "one true God" and those poor unfortunates in other religions will get their comeuppance in Hell.
All religions get a free pass from the government. If your religion's sabbath is Wed through Thurs, your employer will have to accommodate you unless he can show "undue hardship" for the business. Violations of the separation of church and state are frequent and serious, almost always in favor of Christians, but the freedom of religion doctrine is so entrenched that any religious belief, no matter how ridiculous, carries a big stick in the courtroom. This is why the Church of Scientology pays no taxes.