[FirstTomato]

Perhaps it would be more correct to say that Westerners crave freedom because of the great effect that the age of enlightenment had on Christianity and Christians.

On the other hand, the age of enlightenment had little effect of Islam or any other religion, except for Judaism. So Muslims stayed mired in the 12th century, Hinduism is mired in its engrained inhumane caste system, etc.

In other words, the effects of the rise of the philosophers in France, the importance of the bourgeois, and the economic changes that capitalism brought were influencing Christianity for the better.

What has impacted Islam in such a positive way?

[Cicero]

The Age of Enlightenment was in part a reaction against Christianity. (Ecrasez l'Infame.) But at the same time it grew out of Christianity. Subsequent events have shown, in the opinion of many, that reason alone is not enough to govern society or give meaning to life. But it has been well documented that the rise of western science and technology and its confidence in the validity of reason rest in large part on the Christian view of the universe--what has sometimes been summed up as the theology of the Logos.