[AltaGuy]

In the sixties and seventies in many middle eastern cultures, women were much more free, and the hold fundamentalism had over the populations was far less. In Lebanon, Sunni, Shia, and Christian families often intermarried. Atheism was much more prevalent and there were lots of people who associated with socialism and communism.

Dumbing down what is an incredibly complicated historical context into "Islam is bad and they've always been brutes" is silly. The Shah happened, and then the revolution. Israel/Palestine continues to be a powderkeg. The Iran-Iraq war happened, then two gulf wars. The Lebanese civil war lasted over twenty years and drew in almost every outside force imaginable. The Syrian civil war has killed upwards of 400,000 people and displaced millions.

We are far removed and don't have good information about the middle east. Imagine trying to figure out the world around you with psycho imams, propaganda from dictators, and spies of every kind in your every day life.

It's an incredibly complicated place, and Islam's various incarnations reflect that insanely complicated and violent recent history. I make no apologies for brutal medieval practices, but the immediate historical context cannot be ignored, and nor should the often stupid and sometimes malicious role the West has played in that region.

Three years ago, an interracial couple I know was jeered by a group of idiots in Drumheller of all places. Holding hands with a gay partner will garner much of the same in rural Alberta to this day.

We aren't quite so enlightened as we'd like to imagine in my opinion.