As an athiest I don't feel the need to fill my day with ritual. However, meditation is known to have health benefits, so if you meditate by sitting quietly or by praying, it seems to me to be a healthy thing to do. I don't think about death at all, it dosen't bother me really, possibly because I'm not frightened about what happens after.
I have a degree in religions, and majored in Islamic studies, so while I have some knowledge of Islam, it is probably very different from that of a practising muslim. Academically, the study of a religion focuses on its antecedents, its emergence, its history and its major thinkers. So while I could quote from Al Ghazali, Ibin Sina and Rabiya, most practising muslims I know just look at me blankly when I discuss the evolution of written arabic from the classical period to today and how the absence of vowell dots in the early written form makes it difficult to be precisely sure what some sections of the Quran actually say (hence the 'dark eyed houris' vs 'white rasins' controversy of late). I like to keep them on their toes.
I have many muslim friends because I work in a predominantly muslim environment. What I find is there seems to be a confusion between culture and religion. For example, I often find when dealing with elderly muslim men that I have to take a male colleage with me as they find it difficult ot take serioulsy a woman who works. Now the prophet's first wife was a known businesswoman. If it's good enough for the prophet it should not be an issue for his followers. However, the culture that these men come from places women in a decidedly secondary position. They justify it in terms of religion, but it's not really.
My feelings on the veil are mixed. Firstly, there is only one reference in the Quran to veiling and then it is only directed towards the prophet's wives. As a pale skin celt who suffers from earache in the cold, I'm often seen out and about with a veil, it's practical. However, I have difficulty with men in muslim countries who treat any woman who does not veil with contempt, as I've encountered quite a few times in my travels. It strikes me that the problem with written constitutions and religions is that they are appropriate for the time and place when they are written, but times change and because they are written, they cannot be changed. A (non-religious) example of this is the American right to bear arms that is written into the constitution. Now while it may have been appropriate when the constitution was written, the result of having the right 'graven in stone' as it were can be seen in the murder statistics. The same could be said about the status of women in Islam. For a tribal culture, it may be appropriate for men to be designated carers of the more vulnerable women and the assumption that women need only inherit half that their brothers do as they are cared for by husbands/brothers may have some merit. But the world has moved on. The religion invests much in the revelaed and unchanging nature of the Quran, hence the clash.