system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The terrorism, violence and extremism in the Middle East today is not (primarily) a product of Islam.

I believe that the perspective that citizens in Western nations have with regard to the Middle East is not a product of critical analysis, but rather one of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and a general lack of understanding of history and how civilizations develop and progress. I'm by no means an expert on this matter, which is why I'm curious to hear other opinions. It feels pretty cut and dry to me, but nothing is ever cut and dry, so I'd like to expand my perspective a bit. 

I struggle to understand how what is happening in the Middle East today is any different from what Europe underwent when it was developing and becoming "modern." Unspeakable atrocities have been committed by Western Civilization, and the Bible was often used to justify them. Manifest Destiny and the genocide of indigenous people, for example, or the development of chattel slavery. The Holocaust, indiscriminate firebombing of civilians, and the dropping of nuclear bombs were all Western Civilization at its worst. Views on women were hardly more progressive either. I think the only difference is the way in which we portray and discuss these things. When we learn about white Christian nations doing the very same things (or worse) that we criticize the Middle Eastern nations for doing, we do not speak of it in the same manner. We do not call Christopher Columbus, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, the Founding Fathers or Harry Truman terrorists or uncivilized savages. We actually tend to glorify and make heroes of these people. Likewise, we do not blame the Christian faith for the atrocities committed in its name, but rather recognize the atrocities for what they are - growing pains, an apparently necessary process that most civilizations undergo on their way to becoming more developed, more moral, more progressive. Why can we not view the Middle East through this very same lens? 

I think that the citizens of Western nations have no right to feel any sense of moral superiority over any nation committing similar atrocities to those committed by their own nations in the past. Nations do not develop at the same pace, and while we are justified in criticizing certain actions and behaviors, it must be done with an understanding that it is not at all out of the ordinary. There should also be an acknowledgement that many nations struggling today might be further ahead in their development if not for the imperialist actions of the very nations we place on a moral pedestal today. I do not deny that there are harmful doctrines within the Islamic faith that bad actors use to justify the atrocities they commit. That being said, I believe these atrocities would be committed regardless, as they have been historically in virtually every nation regardless of culture or religion. 

I apologize for the long-winded post, but I wanted to make sure to express how I came to this conclusion as clearly as possible. What it would take to change my view is any evidence that the actions of Islamic extremists today are somehow unique to Islam, and more immoral or extreme than what has been committed by other white Christian nations in the past. I'm happy to discuss any particular points I've made as well, but that is the crux of the view I'm interested in changing, or at least having a more nuanced view of.
gpt
Isn't this whataboutism? "Crusaders and the Inquisition did it too" is not counter evidence to anything Islam is or isn't responsible for.

And even if your argument is "it's human nature to be violent" that still doesn't rule out a more proximate cause of Islam. It can be both.