Cultural identity often gets tied up in a common mythology/psychology. It provides a “link” between people that might not otherwise exist.
Are we still free to choose? I’d say that while trying to modify our government to protect certain aspects of Judeo-Christian tenets, we have given our Enemies the very tools to now infringe on that religious freedom.
Islam is a cancerous cultural meme. It poisons and kills anywhere it takes hold. As such, it is less a “religion” and more a virulent psychopathy. My Ancestors had the recipe to the cure for such cultural insanity: You attack us, we burn your entire village/city down and kill every living thing. Within one generation, they came to fear the ships with the square sails whenever they came over the horizon.
Again, this argues Theology. Ants putting labels on Gods. We get lost in the minutia and forget that we are trying to pay homage to, or curry favor from, beings that are completely beyond our understanding.
And that is the theme that keeps recurring when Islam rears its ugly head in history. They will convert us all or kill us, and that is their sole purpose. I for one, am going to go down fighting the ugliness of their godless beliefs.
(If I only had a sidearm instead of a slingshot...)