oh, i see -- civilization implies a decent record of human rights and lack of poverty. great. does that apply to the bastion of western civilization, the usa? i've never been to finland, but you should visit the us -- i can take you on a tour of downtown detroit, and you can tell all the poor people there how lucky they are to be civilized.
human rights issues and poverty are problems of a government -- a government that lacks leadership or the wiilingnes to take care of its people. that happens all over the world, not just in muslim countries, so to claim that "they" are "uncivilized" on that basis is a fallacious argument, devoid of logic.
let's take saudi arabia -- one of the countries with human rights issues. Specifically, the saudi monarchy uses their power with the courts to imprison any opponents to the regime, where they're tortured. this is the same saudi regime that's been propped up by the west since its inception in 1923.
re poverty -- what western civilized country doesn't have a sizeable portion of its population below the poverty line? Let's bring up saudi arabia again -- the ruling elite live in absolute luxury while part of the population has to make do in abject poverty. Again, the same regime that exists at the behest of the west. Plus, of all the dollars that are made from a barrel of oil, only a small fraction goes to the arab country where that oil was drilled -- the majority of profits go to the oil companies, a situation that the governments are happy to put up with. the quran states that the wealth of a country -- on the land, underneath it, or from the sea -- belongs equally to all the people of that country. but just like in every other major religion, people (ie the arab governments) are willing to ignore those parts that don't give them a benefit. And other people (ie you) seem willing to generalize from the actions of a few, despite what the majority thinks or does.
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