The Soviets liquidated millions of religious people, because of their religion. So if a religious government liquidated millions of atheists, because they weren't religious, would you say it had nothing to do with religion?
I'm an atheist, but not the kind of cult your part of, who spend most of their days thinking about religion. Lots of the crimes throughout history would have happened with or without religion. Leaders and such use it to rally people together to support the same cause, when they are frauds themselves.