So, I had a think. It's not a very complete think, but it raised some questions that I need to answer before I can have a complete think. I thought I'd bring back the questions for analysis.
To me, it seems like there are a few issues at play here:
1) Historical facts
2) Perceptions of those facts
3) Feelings about those perceptions
So, here are the historical facts, devoid of emotion, as I have had them presented to me, and I guess I'd like to see how they compare with what happened according people who have had a more scholarly history background:
- Mohammad said in his last sermon that people should not be judged by their skin color.
- Umar made a bunch of rules regarding the character of a government official, most of which were pretty reasonable; and he said that if something isn't harming anyone (and is not otherwise forbidden), it's legal.
- By Uthman's time, there was a simply huge amount of social welfare policies, including public schools, homeless shelters (which were also available to be used as free hotels), hospitals (at least, as good as was available at the time), international trade (with Muslim-army guarded trade routes) that brought the knowledge and acceptance of other cultures, a stipend for all children (and investment trusts for the children in state-run orphanages), studies of math and science, and history and literature.
- There was also an incredible amount of rights for women. The Muslim lands were one of the few places on earth that women could own property, and within a few centuries women owned a great deal of the wealth; they were guaranteed equal pay for equal work; and were entitled to custody, child support, and alimony in the event of a divorce. Women were also given access to an equal amount of education as men, and the first university in the world was founded by a Muslim woman.
- Towards the start of the Muslim empire, Christianity and Judaism were accepted non-Muslim religions, but within a few centuries, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, "doubters" (atheists or agnostics), and other minority religious views were also common.
- Gay individuals existed in Muslim literature for many centuries. In 1858, homosexuality was decriminalized in the Ottoman Empire. This was a result mainly of growing consensus that homosexuality was not a choice, and could not be changed at will. (http://www.banap.net/spip.php?article86)
- The British colonized many formerly Muslim countries. They introduced a wide variety of laws, including "anti-buggery" laws, and changed the culture to be more conservative to reflect British Victorian era values.
- Americans came along a bit later, with their post-WW2 money and military expertise, and instituted more changes, based on American government (not necessarily American populace) values of the Cold War era.
As for perceptions:
I'm a democratic socialist. I support what is often derisively referred to as a "welfare state," because I believe it is the responsibility of society to care for the disadvantaged and those in need. So if it is true that the early Muslim world was a welfare state, I do support that kind of thing, not because of religious values but because of my secular based social values. I also support social equality regardless of gender and sexual identity, skin color, religious identity, etc. So if those things existed in Muslim countries in by-gone eras, I support that too.
With regards to West-blaming, I only wish to do that insofar as it is historically accurate. Many of the modern problems are not the direct result of the west, but are a result of general policy changes that were initially supported by the west. For example, Hosni Mubarak was initially supported by America, and used the fact that he had had good relationships with several American presidents to convince the people that he was supported by America and could therefore not be overthrown. This happened in several other Arab Spring countries as well. Saddam Hussein also initially had a good relationship with America, as did Osama bin Laden (who fought with American trained people against "evil Communist Atheism").
Similarly, the Saud family was initially supported by Great Britain, and used their new power to push Wahhabi Islam, which is undoubtedly resulting in very violent and repressive movements. But it has grown out of hand, and now even the Saudis can't control it, which is causing them great concern, as they are now in danger from a monster of their own creation.
But this is all based on the assumption that the facts I listed in the section above are true. If those are in dispute and you can provide me with more data to show they are not true, then I will rethink these perceptions.As for feelings about those perceptions, I don't know how I feel. I'll do some more thinking about that.
Topic: On why I chose to identify as muslim for so long