Islam is not the only religion that has been used as a pretext for violence and oppression. And other things than religion have also been used as pretexts for violence and oppression.
I don’t think all Arabs hate gays, women, and other types of people, and I don’t think Arabs are the only people who have among their number people who hate gays, women, and other types of people. As far as I could tell, the Arabs I knew were mostly busy doing other things than hating gays, women, and other types of people, and besides, I never got around to asking them questions about things like that.
I didn’t say you didn’t say that the West influenced the Arabs. I acknowledged that you said it. My point was that influence is a very nice word for what has been done to the Arabs by parties in the West.
Only for brief times. I was on a ship in the Persian Gulf for a few months in late 1983 and early 1984. The ship spent a lot of time at sea. The only places I went ashore at were Dubai and Bahrain.
That’s your right, and your business.
I don’t know how the Arabs (and some other predominantly Muslim societies) would have turned out if the West had left them alone.
Western peoples have also killed over religious issues.