A clash between Reason vs. Superstition?

Religion seems to have power in modern societies that it has had before. Comedy Central forbade South Park's creators to show images of the Prophet Muhammad and instead, they made fun of their own network and Jesus instead.. I wrote a post a while ago about the fact that religions are increasingly considered to be above satire. There is an article in the Guardian that makes an interesting argument against religions schools in Great Britain. It argues, “Religion usually means class, race or tribe segregation,” and that “Every school that vanishes into the hands of the religions is gone for ever, exceedingly hard for a future government to get back.” To what extent is it true that religion enforces superstition over reason and legitimizes divisions within a society such as class and race?