Quote (NetflixAdaptationWidow @ 16 Jul 2021 22:36)
That's a massive oversimplification.
Look at pictures of Iran in the 60's and 70's. There are women in bell bottom jeans.
The real cause of Islam's slide backwards was the systemic pushing of radical groups to fight our enemies in the middle east. As an example, the United States directly funded the Taliban and provided them with radical islamic literature during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The history of the middle east is complicated, and depressing.
The liberalism in countries like Iran was due to a temporary, very secular zeitgeist, not because of islam itself becoming any more liberal or tame. Of course a strongly secularized muslim population is compatible with Western values - but the flipside is my key point:
orthodox islam is not.
The jeans and belly buttons also were very much a thing of the big cities. Even during their most liberal years, the countries of the Middle East had a huge share of deeply religious people. Figures like Khomeini (or Erdogan in Turkey for a more recent example) could not have succeeded without this base.
And last but not least, you're not giving enough credit to the corrupting influence Saudi Arabia and its ultra-conservative Wahhabist take on islam has had on the region. They sponsored copious amounts of terrorists and radical Imams who indoctrinate their communities. The West fucked up big time in the region, don't get me wrong, but reactionary forces from within Middle Eastern societies also played a large role in the religious backsliding.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 16 2021 02:54pm