Nice try but the West has moved on to Enlightenment and Liberal values and has integrated freedom of religion inside of it. Maybe Islam should do the same, or at least not see the people who do this as sub-human infidels that deserve death (I'm talking about the extreme interpretations).
Alternatively as you suggest we could return the favor and revive the crusades.
>Nice try but the West has moved on to Enlightenment and Liberal values and has integrated freedom of religion inside of it.
Nice try, tell me that when anyone but a conservative Christian can be elected President, libraries aren't being shut down for having "woke" material, and states aren't hunting down women for getting abortions, mandating school prayers or outlawing homosexuality.
And I'm not talking about "the West" here, I'm talking about the US. Other Western countries take Enlightenment and Liberal values seriously enough to actually provide for the common welfare of their citizens. The US constantly struggles against the chains the Constitution puts on it because it wants nothing more than to be a Christian theocracy, and for every step forward it takes, it seems to stumble back two.
> Maybe Islam should do the same, or at least not see the people who do this as sub-human infidels that deserve death
Maybe the CIA should stop interfering with secular Muslim societies and installing radical dictators, or letting the Saudis get away with anything they want. Remember, the only reason the West was able to stumble out of the dark ages and into the Enlightenment was Islamic scholarship.
>Alternatively as you suggest we could return the favor and revive the crusades.
We already are. George Bush literally declared that after 9/11. American politicians have already framed Israel's actions as a "religious war."
What I suggest is America get off its high horse, stop supporting evil in the name of its deranged apocalyptic view of Christianity and leave the world alone. Or else, at least, be consistent enough in its ideals to be willing to oppose something as evil as genocide regardless of who commits it.
> The US constantly struggles against the chains the Constitution puts on it because it wants nothing more than to be a Christian theocracy, and for every step forward it takes, it seems to stumble back two.
If we are to be consistent, and we say that there is nothing wrong with Sharia law, then there is nothing wrong with a Christian theocracy, which we are FAR from. So which one is it? Do we condemn both, or allow both? I'm perfectly fine condemning any kind of religion at the government level, we are supposed to have separation of church and state (not the case with Islam).
> Maybe the CIA should stop interfering with secular Muslim societies and installing radical dictators, or letting the Saudis get away with anything they want. Remember, the only reason the West was able to stumble out of the dark ages and into the Enlightenment was Islamic scholarship.
This is hard to expand here, but of course the U.S. has done a lot of harm, however anyone who claims they are free from any wrongdoing is lying. No one is an absolute victim at this level of analysis.
> We already are. George Bush literally declared that after 9/11. American politicians have already framed Israel's actions as a "religious war."
We were not spreading the word of Jesus in the Middle East, and to the extent we're spreading democracy and capitalism, it is at least in part because Islamist dictators keep wanting to spread their revolution, control more land, spread their religion, and fight against anyone who gets in the way. As you correctly point out the Saudis are allies and get a different treatment for a reason, which has to do with how they are integrating into the modern world, unlike Iran which clearly shows the same underlying religious motivations.
> What I suggest is America get off its high horse, stop supporting evil in the name of its deranged apocalyptic view of Christianity and leave the world alone.
I largely agree with this, but we also have to take into consideration that preventing a WW3 might actually be about toppling brutal dictators that otherwise would start conquering half of the world and killing innocent people in the process. Think about what Putin would do without the U.S. getting in the way.
> I'm perfectly fine condemning any kind of religion at the government level, we are supposed to have separation of church and state (not the case with Islam).
Not the case with Christianity, either, and plenty of American politicians disagree with the premise, even today. You're conflating religion with government, here, to say nothing of conflating the extremist fringe of a religion with the whole. Secular states with majority Muslim populations do exist.
But I agree with you, I wish the American government didn't need to pander to right-wing Christianity to exist, but unfortunately it does. That may not be Christian theocracy per se but it's still far too theocracy-adjacent for my tastes.
>As you correctly point out the Saudis are allies and get a different treatment for a reason, which has to do with how they are integrating into the modern world, unlike Iran which clearly shows the same underlying religious motivations.
The Saudis funded 9/11, and Saudis carried it out. And Saudi society is not even remotely integrated into the modern world, they still have slavery FFS. They get special treatment because of oil and relationships with American businesses. Iran was integrated into the modern world until the US was worried they might turn a bit communist. Modern extremist Iran is a product of American foreign policy, as are Al Qaeda and ISIS to a large degree. American foreign policy creates more Islamic extremists than it kills.
>Think about what Putin would do without the U.S. getting in the way.
The US seems to be letting Putin do as he pleases, how is anyone getting in his way?
Fair points, and Saudis have a long way to go, they might have funded 9/11 but it was still funding religious extremism. Iraq was definitely the wrong move anyway. At least the Saudis are not expanding and trying to horde all the oil which thankfully we are moving away from.
> The US seems to be letting Putin do as he pleases, how is anyone getting in his way?
Not according to Putin, which is justifying his move precisely because the US and NATO are too close to their border. We are definitely funding Ukraine, at least until recently.
Alternatively as you suggest we could return the favor and revive the crusades.