Religion is a set of beliefs. A cultural mileu often forms among the people who share those beliefs, and those people are often anxious for more and more folks to join the ranks of their ilk. In addition to proselytizing, another way swell the ranks is to declare your offspring to be officially "one of us." But a baby or small child is not able to make an informed, thoughtful decision as to whether or not to hold the belief, particularly since there is often a lot of pressure and intimidation put on the child to consider itself "one of us" which gets in the way of real, free choice.
Dawkins doesn't rally against the cultural traditions and wisdom of religious groups. He rallies against superstition. He writes (and I strongly agree) that it is abusive to label and force belief on a child. Religious education rarely provides a child with real freedom to choose.
"Born English" is a faulty analogy to "Born Christian" when seen in terms of belief as opposed to culture. And society in general has gotten used to collapsing belief and culture. Two different things, Dawkins points out. I suspect that many of his harshest critics are basing their rancor on second-hand information, rather than their first-account readings of his books.
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