Islam suffers from the same minority influence of fundamentalists and zealots imposssed on the majority (due to political and economic conditions) as the western religions do; that gives them both a bad reputation despite what good the individually pious people do in thier own communitees.

Zealotry and close minded fundamentalist thinking is the real enemy, not the religions themselves.

The world is not as developed over there in regaurds to personel freedoms, which i can assure you the people there do not all think it nessesarally should be.

In fact they sometimes have a tendency to view the western world as concieted eurocentric, rife with coruption and decadent on par with a level of true evil much as the subject and occupied nations of the mediteranian once viewed the romans.

Just as many years ago (and sometimes still today) the judeo/christian fundamentalists impossed what by today's standards are considered practices that violate human rights. Look at what just happened in texas not to long ago.

I see just as much ignorance and vehmency expoused here in the west as i have seen in the country of my birth especially by athiests.

Religions of the east have thier own problems alltough from personal experience with them (on average) i have never seen them to portray a sexually onesided view as those religions originating from the middle east (christianity, judisim, and islam) appear to on the surface.

I consititantly see people more than willing to point to one side or the other and say what they believe and do is wrong, all the while mentioning nothing of the thier own sides problems.

A quote from memory so forgive me if its wording is not exact comes to mind:

" do not cast out the sliver in thy brothers eye until you have dealt with the log in your own"