Religious Favoritism

Can democracies show favoritism towards some religions over others?


ABSOLUTELY NOT!
In a democracy all adult citizens have the right to have a say in decisions that effect their life and country. Although these decisions might be a few degrees away from the common man they still had the opportunity to elect the officials who will speak on their behalf. This makes each mans vote equal to any other.
If a democracy were to favor one religion over another this would almost certainly mean not all men are equal.
Hypothetically if a said country favored Islam over Judaism then how would a Jew ever receive the same opportunities of a Muslim? Equality of man is a huge part of democracy. Equality in that every man can be heard and play a role that is equal to all other men, despite religious views.
A separation of church and state is needed in every way. There are only two countries that have only one religion and those are the Vatican City and Saudi Arabia. With the Vatican being the head of the Catholic church as it is the home of the Pope, the College of Bishops, and the College of Cardinals. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy.
Although Saudi Arabia is a monarchy it can still give an insight to how political favoritism of a religion can result in persecution of people who have differing religious views.
1. The penalty for trying to convert a Muslim to any other religion is death. In recent years there has been no reports of executions for this reason. While a country may not be this extreme with their favoritism this is a prime example of what could happen when one religion is favored. There is no extent to what a country could do in support of or defense of their "favorite" religion
2. Public practice of any non-Muslim religion is prohibited. S.A. has claimed that they protect the rights of non-Muslims to worship in private. The non-Muslim groups say there is no clear guideline as to what suffices as a private location and what establishments are acceptable. The groups also claim its unclear how many people are permitted to attend. There are still reports of persecution on these groups despite the policy made to protect non-Muslims.

Not that this would be the case for any country favoring a certain religion but "history repeats itself" isn't just a catchy saying. I don't feel mixing religion with government is in the best interest of the countrymen. It would violate the core values of a democracy by making one mans role or standing unequal to that of another.