Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
One of the great mistakes that well-meaning people, the Marxdroids, and Western-American-Jew haters make, is to conflate their own beliefs with that of Islam and Muslims. So for example, 'fair play', 'tolerance', 'peace' [at any costs], and 'live and let live', become translated directly from the Western dialect into the Islamic. Muslim belief systems suddenly are the same as our own. Christianity is magically the 'same as' Islam, just a little Whiter in the skin [and more barbarous in the implementation]. The Ten Commandments become mysteriously embedded in the Koran, in which they don't exist. The Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 is 'assumed' to be in the Koran since the two theologies are erroneously categorized as being similar.
It is a cardinal sin in my view to equate anything Islamic with Western ideals or theology. Take 'ethics'. In Islam as I have pointed out in Suras 76-78, there is no objective measurement of what is 'ethical'. It is black and white and very Manichean. If you are a Muslim that is good and ethical. If you deny or leave Islam, that is bad and must be punished. Almost every single Koranic verse makes this clear as do the Hadiths which 'explain' the Koran and Mohammed's life and biography or Sira [or Sura]. In Islam the world is not big enough for 2 theologies. It is all or nothing. Since all humans are born Muslim [this is what the Koran states], than all humans must 'return' to the Allah thing, or Mohammed's family moon deity. If they don't they are punished by eternal hell-fire. One day when I am bored, I am going to count the number of Koranic verses which promises hell-fire for the Infidel Kufar. I know it will total somewhere between 400 and 500.
We know that Christian ethics have nothing in common with Koranic objectives. Everything in Islam is based upon what Mohammed or Allah [the two are the same in the Koran] had to 'say' or pronounce. A Muslim must mindlessly and endlessly parrot: “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Mohammed is the ideal Muslim [Sura 38]. A good and ethical Muslim is not just someone who must worship the object or thing Allah. A true Muslim is a cult member who will worship the moon deity or abstract ideal, exactly as Mohammed worshipped it. This means that logically every Muslim must tend to being simply a cult follower of Mohammed or what our more intelligent ancestors called a Mohammedan. There is no disputing this fact.
What is also indisputable is this. Islam is for Muslims only. Heaven is for Muslims only. War is for the Infidel. Hell and eternal damnation is for the Kufar. In Islam and the Koran, only Muslims must be treated properly. The cult has to grow after all. You need women, babies, welfare and military strength to spread the moon deity's message. So the idea of 'ethics' in the Koran is simply the following: Do not kill another Muslim. Do not steal from another Muslim. Do not deceive another Muslim.
Muslims can lie, deceive, kill, steal from, or humiliate non-Muslims of course. In fact the Koran and the Hadiths encourage this, as does the example of from the life and deeds of Mohammed. In Bukhari's Hadiths we can read the following about Islam's 'ethics':
B9,85,83 Mohammed: “A Muslim is a brother to other Muslims. He should never oppress them nor should he facilitate their oppression.”
B8,73,70 Mohammed: “Harming a Muslim is an evil act; killing a Muslim means rejecting Allah.”
B5,59,369 Mohammed asked, “Who will kill Ka’b (a Jewish poet), the enemy of Allah and Mohammed?”
Bin Maslama rose and responded, “O Mohammed! Would it please you if I killed him?”
Mohammed answered, “Yes.” Bin Maslama then said, “Give me permission to deceive him with lies so that my plot will succeed.” Mohammed replied, “You may speak falsely to him.”
Muslims can't explain ignore the above, or say it is not the real Islam. It comes out of the Koran and Hadiths two books they revere as those of divine inspiration. The theme is simple. A Muslim should be a brother to other Muslims but not to non-Muslims. A Muslim should not kill another Muslim but may murder a non-Muslim. A Muslim may not lie to another cult member, but he can lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam. It is really that simple.
Mohammedanism or Islam, divides the entire world between the cult; and the hated Unbelievers. There are thus two sets of insupportable and subjective 'ethics' - one for Islam and another for the rest. In Western theology the Golden Rule is applied to all humans, not just Jews or Christians. Matthew 7:12 does not state: Do unto some people, as you would have them do unto you, but do unto all people as you would have them do unto you. This is critical. Mohammed's cult denies this universality of the Golden Rule and actively promotes the opposite – the complete humiliation, destruction and butchery of non-believers. Jihad is the 6th pillar of Islam and over 200 Koranic verses support it. This dualism within Islam means that it is obviously not a religion but a cult.
[See also Bill Warner's site. ]