.
Still, I’m sticking with my assessment: Islam is why some folks can’t have nice things like a democracy, civil society or other non-Sharia republic and the only way Muslims can have such nice things is to the extent that they are backslidden or content to not do what Islam demandsof them (which is to impose Sharia).
Islamic countries have that faith in common. But, Islamic Indonesian is a FAR CRY from Islamic Algeria.
In the end the CULTURE and GOVERNMENT determine how things turn out...not necessarily ONLY the religion.
The five years we spent in the KSA made me FULLY appreciate the blessed country we live in. When we landed at LAX I got down on that airport linoleum and KISSED the ground I was SO glad to finally be home for good.
The Saudis were good to us...or we wouldn't have stayed there five years but...what did Dorothy say: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
You are speaking of matters of temperament for a given extended family running the whole show, who may have reasons to shield guests or useful people from the full effects of Sharia ... and who as Bedoins may just be polite in the right circumstances as well ... and even then those who want strict Sharia are all over the kingdom. One brand of ideology that helped to describe why Islam doesn’t let people have “nice things” as I previously put it flows from Saudia Arabia. It it NOT a creation of the untaught and ignorant but frequently of those who were the elites! both in terms of the quality of their education and how they applied themselves to it.