If you're that close to disrespecting them as a nation on the world order for having some unique tradition you don't share, you never really respected their culture and were waiting for a chance for it to be excusable

There are two very different types of respect; respect for a person as a human being, and respect for a person as an authority. But because we use the same word for these two different things, people often talk as if they were the same thing. So for example, when someone in authority says “If you don’t respect me, I won’t respect you.” What they’re actually saying (and justifying) is “If you don’t respect me as an authority, I won’t respect you as a human being.”