>>92667107Islam's not that unusual as far as religions go. In the areas it conquered it even mixed with local pagan/animistic beliefs for a time. There's still large swaths of the world where a more chill, laid back version of Islam holds a considerable amount of influence.
The problem came with the rise of global communication. Global communication = global competition for purity. Even fifty years ago, it was conceivable to say something like, "Yeah, I don't know how they do things in Arabia, but HERE the most pure version of Islam is some weird admixture of monotheism and paganism and we all just lay back and smoke hookahs and generally try to keep our heads down. Don't worry too much about what the Koran says, we don't even know the language it's written in." (True for many muslims, actually.)
Nowadays though, it can be quickly communicated what the Koran actually says, and the Koran actually says "Adhere to the moral and social standards of this iron-age war machine, which is all about terrorizing your enemies and having women pump out as many baby soldiers as possible." And it can't be denied that's what it actually says. Shit like this is why you hear about how, not that long ago, a bunch of Middle-eastern muslim countries actually seemed a lot more laid back than they are today.
Another problem with Islam is that it doesn't have an equivalent figure like the Pope. During the middle ages, a lot of what prevented Christianity from going WAY off the rails was that the purity spiral had a caveat: "Try to be the most pure christian you can be, but oh yeah: No one can be more holy than the pope." That actually acted as a check on radicalism. (For example, the Inquisition, despite its reputation today, was actually a reaction by the church to fanatics who would whip up mob violence against undesirables. The inquisition was actually founded as a way to give them at least a semblance of a legal process.)
But this is out of the scope of a sveg thread