You have people willing to believe blindly in a "leader", without even reading the text's they supposedly uphold, when even those texts warn to not do so.
And then you have the opportunists willing to mis-lead them for their ego, wealth, power, etc. to increase their motivated influence.
It isn't religion per-say, but our own short comings...no different than someone who is part of the LGBT voting for Trump, someone economically oppressed...voting to be more oppressed. Their suffering gets placed on another easy target or they are told what they want to hear.....such as "it's not your fault...its people like abc and xyz...." and sad to say, its easier to blame than to accept blame. Religion could be banned, it still wouldn't solve the problem...but perhaps exacerbate it.
Organized religion has always been subject to corruption. Hence why the early Christian Church was divided into 12 factions by Apostles who consistently disagreed with each other..and some not so sure about the Apostles....even with an apparent leader such as Peter. Even when it became "nationalized" by Rome almost 400 years later...and yes, this country is younger than the adoption of Christianity by Rome, you still had many factions. The Gnostic and Jewish Christians were obviously out the door. It was all about the Gentile Christians, who were the largest group...and only those who were warmed up to the idea of a "nationalized church". But you still had groups outside of the Empire from Germany to Ethiopia to India to the Russ. But economic pressures, politics, etc. eventually pushed larger groups to accept the unified Church...or later, after the split, Catholicism or Orthodoxy.
Any way, I'm rambling. Christianity was born out of Temple Government Corruption...some would say that Islam as born out of Christian Kingdom corruption...and some would say Buddhism was born out of Hindu corruption. A number would say the growth of Christianity was the result to mass corruption in Pagan religions. Either way, religion alone can't be blamed, people are inclined to create their own religion or lack of it.
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