And to what extent do you believe that these cultural differences are linked to prosperity? I mean, the concept of the nation-state has been the backbone of global culture since the 17th century (the idea introduced in the Treaty of Westphalia in 16-something-or-other), and yet, in recent decades, this culture, this idea has been slowly - but surely - fading in the name of greater prosperities.

Other cultures are also fading in the Western World due to greater prosperity - look at the relative diminishing importance of the monarchies in Europe. And, on other levels, the changes in architecture. Equal rights, democracy, and personal freedoms also seem to become of far greater importance as wealth increases.

When I look at the Middle-East, I see that the views of the people are very similar to the views of Europe centuries ago. Borders are still issues worth going to war over, frequent and frivolous use of capital punishment, in-equal rights between ethnicities and genders, strong monarchies and/or dictatorships.

What the Middle-East really needs is a democratic revolution, and it is happening, though maybe only on a small scale for the moment - Iraq and Afghanistan are being pushed forward by the hands of the West, but we are starting to see grass-roots movement for democracy in countries like Iran - remember those protests last year? What Europe showed is that no matter how hard the Government may try, those protests will forever continue until democracy prevails. The Government can merely delay the revolution, it cannot deny it.

When democracy does finally stretch itself across the Middle-East, development will be rapid - secularism will happen over time, though it may not be immediate - and other Western cultural ideas will start to prop up alongside it - equal rights, reduction of capital punishment, etc.

By this point, the Middle-East will probably see capitalism slowly enter throughout - stronger property rights and contract laws - favoured by democratic Governments - will see small domestic businesses popping up and prospering, as well as huge levels of foreign investment.

At this point, I honestly believe that it will only be a couple of decades before the Middle East becomes a dustier version of Europe.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that the huge, gaping differences in culture are strongly linked to the huge, gaping differences in wealth.

I'm sorta in the same situation as you, but i'm an athiest & consider myself to be "sorta" muslim-ish, like I sorta used to be muslim/kinda still am (parents ...etc), I briefly attended a religious school, but most of my knowledge comes from the fact that my family moved around a bit and spent a few years studying in my home country (called Jordan, as in "the kingdom of ..") where religion is taught in their school curriculum

So my question is are you like really muslim or just "sorta" muslim? - see next post

You're a PS3 fan...I'm not sure about you...lol...just kidding.

"For as we further continue to seek knowledge, we'll never truly shut ourselves to a singular view upon our tiny world. A world that seems to get larger and more diverse with each passing day. "

Indeed my friend...indeed!

The "Yes it is" means that some cultures, have aspects of them that are wrong.

Your OP made it sound like aspects of the world that are common place that we find uncomfortable, is just a matter of culture. And that it's ok for other countries to behave the way they do. Some things, like food, I can understand. Most Muslin countries have massive human rights violations, especially towards woman. That's not OK.

And in my example, I did not say all catholic priests are child molesters. I mean 95% of all child molesters that are Christian preachers, are Catholic. That statistic might not be true, that that was the point of it.

Let me ask you this...

if I have 10 religions in my county, and 10 million of each (so I have 100 million people in my country), and 100 terrorist acts happen in a year. Of those 100 terrorist acts, 100 of them come from one religious group.

That's still statistically a very small percentage of the one religion, so I would not condemn the entire religion, but are you telling me that when I take whatever action I need to take to stop these attacks, I should just forget about whatever religion had every terrorist. That that's useless information that's just a coincidence?

This is what our federal government is trying to do, and I think is wrong.

This is such an accurate description of the situation

the fear that some people express doesn't come from curtural difference. differences would cause a different reaction, like curiosity, maybe even hate, but not fear... The fear comes from the things that a group of extremists did a few years ago, and your saying that not everyone should be treated a certain way because of that small group... the problem here is that, to be muslim, I mean a *REAL muslim, IS to be extremist in thought/mentality at the very least.

*real as in you truly believe that Islam is the one true religion and that all other religions before it are obsolete as stated by the Qur'an/Prophet AND that you are willing to do anything to please you god as a result of said belief, this goes for other religions with devoted believers/followers as well, like christians, jews ..etc

I loathe cultural relatavism.

I don't care what you're culture is, what you're religion is or what you're philosophical ideology is. If you do a practice that is harmful or an unwarranted restriction of a persons rights, and if this can be clearly shown through the use of logic, reason and evidence then I will condemn it at every single opportunity. I have no issue with the parts of culture that enrich life, such as art, music, food, dance, architecture etc. But the moment something is overtly harmful, an instrument of segregation, an unwarranted restriction of rights etc then you will find me in opposition intellectually.

I loathe cultural relatavism.

I don't care what you're culture is, what you're religion is or what you're philosophical ideology is. If you do a practice that is harmful or an unwarranted restriction of a persons rights, and if this can be clearly shown through the use of logic, reason and evidence then I will condemn it at every single opportunity. I have no issue with the parts of culture that enrich life, such as art, music, food, dance, architecture etc. But the moment something is overtly harmful, an instrument of segregation, an unwarranted restriction of rights etc then you will find me in opposition intellectually.

I agree 100% with your post and quoted it because I think it deserves it.  I'm tired of the people making excuses for the way some Islamic countries and people act by saying that we either don't understand or worse that we're the reason (both of which are condescending and insulting).