To be clear, they found no constitutional problem with criminalizing homosexual acts (not homosexuality, btw). That is not to say they thought it was good public policy to do so.
I don’t have much use for Islam. Then again, I don’t have much use for Christianity, either. (I will say that in both cases, they’ve built some really gorgeous buildings.)
I absolutely believe that “the West” should hold firm to its commitment to civil and human rights (including the rights of women and gays) and to secular governments that serve all citizens equally regardless of their religious beliefs. As an American, I tend to think the American ideal of separation of church and state (however imperfectly we may implement that ideal) is superior to, say, having a state church but then letting it gradually wither away to irrelevance and impotence in its ability to actually cause harm.
But precisely that commitment to equal rights for everyone makes me wonder what some people want when they talk about Islam. Do I want everyone to convert to Islam, even some kinder and gentler version of Islam? Hell, no! I think everyone should become a good secular humanist. But, regardless of what Islam has “to offer to the West”, our own core values demand that the equal rights of Muslims be as carefully and completely protected as the rights of Christians or atheists. (I also tend to think that this is a politically and one might say “strategically” more effective stance, allowing us to reassure Muslims that they don’t actually have to renounce their entire religion in order to be good citizens of the United States or Britain or France.)
So, no, no one has the right to force anyone else to wear a burqa to the beach; but, however silly I may think that is, it doesn’t cause me any harm if one of my fellow citizens chooses to dress that way. Of more consequence: How my fellow citizens pray is not any of my business; how many times a day and in what language and facing in whichever direction they choose. Neither is it any of my business if they choose to fast during a certain time of the year. Citizens of a free country should have a right to travel the world, even to countries that I might consider to be repressive fundamentalist hellholes, so the hajj is also not any of my business. (I’ve never been fond of the bans on travel to such secular dictatorships as Cuba, either.) Dedicating some considerable portion of one’s resources to charity actually strikes me as admirable, even from a humanistic point of view.
Of course no one has the right to impose their religious views by violence, or by using the mechanisms of the state. That goes equally for Muslims as for everyone else. I demand the right to speak my mind freely about Islam or the veracity of the Quran or the character of Muhammad as about any other topic. But in our society the question of “Intellectually, What Does Islam Offer The West?” (or, what does Islam offer to any given human being?) must remain a question for each individual human being to answer for himself or herself.
I would say it doesn’t have much to offer. But everyone’s right to individually answer that question has to be protected, both from the Islamists and from the Islamophobes.
This is pretty thin gruel. If it is typical of what Islam has to offer intellectually, then the short answer to OP is “Nothing important”.
What is “wealth?” Any liquid asset? As a retiree with a modest nest egg that unacceptable full stop, and your reply is an embarrassment to Islam.
wealth taxation"?
Even if “a new artistic aesthetic” were the only answer to the OP, it’s a good answer.
Very possibly the best post in the thread. Three cheers, and total agreement.
Afghanistan is scarcely free from stated-enforced religion. See, for instance, the case of Said Musa, who was sentenced to death for “apostasy”, meaning converting from Islam to Christianity. He narrowly escaped from the country with his life.
You listed Christian nations with an established or favored religion by the state, yet in all the cases that I know of, it’s a mainly symbolic thing. In some cases, such as Sweden, there are financial connections between church and government. In none is there criminal punishment for leaving the church, or any similar law blocking free religious practice. By contrast, the Muslim world is rife with such laws. There are Muslim-majority countries, such as Turkey, where “apostasy” and “blasphemy” don’t lead to death or imprisonment. But there is no Muslim-majority country granting its citizens more individual freedoms than the typical western country. Hence nothing in the West that we should learn from Islam, other than examples of what not to do.
Do you complain about property taxes, too? Wealth isn’t just liquid assets.
Zakat - Wikipedia “Zakat is usually payable on assets continuously owned over one lunar year that are in excess of the nisab, a minimum monetary value.”
And it’s, like 2.5%, which is a smidge on the high side compared to property taxes in much of the West, but hardly the 50% income tax many northern Europeans pay to fund their welfare states.
While it’s true that since Khomeni’s fatwa approving of the existence of transgender persons has led to the State funding SRS, there are serious problems with an implication Iran is as good a place to be transgender as the US.
I refer you to some references which demonstrate it’s far from a good situation to be transgender in Iran.
http://www.worldpolicy.org/transition-iran
http://iglhrc.org/sites/default/files/Iran Shadow Report 2011.pdf
And not one that I was making.
The Islamic faith as such has nothing of value to offer anyone – but the Islamic world, the civilization-culture of Dar al-Islam, is a different matter.
Why ? Did they automatically gain Grand Poobahdom without a vote ? (straight question - I don’t know no nothing about no Pakistan or Bangladesh, me)
Because if it’s just a case of riding on coat tails, it’s not exactly like the West is immune to that, as such. In other news, JEB!
I’d put it a different way. There are many, many top-notch Muslim engineers, scientists, doctors and technologists who’d have much to offer any Western countries they might move to.
But Islam per se doesn’t have much to offer.
I think most travelers have good things to say about travel in the Islamic world. The food is generally good- lots of delicious grilled meat- and sometimes it’s prepared with a little more attention to hygiene. Hospitality culture is strong, and it’s common to be welcomed into homes (and often fed more than one can possibly eat.) With a few notable exceptions, public life is often calmer than in corresponding non-Muslim areas. Public drunkeness is not accepted, beggars are less common and in some places it’s unacceptable to harass women in public. For female travelers, especially, Muslim countries often feel safer.
Of course, the “Islamic world” covers a lot of ground and all bets are off in any overcrowded developing world megacity.
I’ve also really enjoyed Muslim holidays. Ramadan is a really special season that brings a sense of belonging and solidarity. The Hajj is a unique lifetime experience. I’ve obviously never been, but I witness a few Cameroonian friends go, and it’s really something amazing for them to be brought together, in common purpose, with people from around the world.
Islam gave us Algebra so clearly it is evil
It generally offers the same as other religions.
As for the present Western culture, it lacks a lot given multiple global crises, and eventually various religious beliefs and philosophies will come into play as one deals with them.
Many Muslims no more believe in God than I do … they use the Koran as a ‘manual for power’.
The Koran trumps the Bible as far as this attitude towards Holy Books in concerned.
Probably part of
which might explain how the main driver in the modern world might involve not religious belief but secular ideologies.
I don’t believe Islam has much to offer to the west. But I don’t think Christianism, Judaism or Hinduism have much to offer to the west, either.
It might be that at some point in history each of these religions had something positive to bring to the table (and even that is dubious), but as of now, religions are a net negative, an hindrance to intellectual, scientific and social progress.
Eh, I’ll give them architectural and artistic vision at least. I don’t know why, but there’s something about the transcendent holy that seems to inspire artists in general and architects in particular. Like, the Louvres is alright (if a bit gaudy) but Notre Dame is something else, y’know ? 
As a woman, Islam has nothing I would want, and much to despise.
After reading this, I went over to quran.com and read the first couple of chapters. So far, it reads like a one-sided conversation. The anonymous speaker seems to be admonishing those who aren’t bona fide Muslims and telling them that because they don’t believe, Allah will keep feeding them more nonsense so that they’ll never attain paradise. The anonymous speaker goes on to give Muslims the credit for Moses rescuing the Jews and says they’re responsible for ensuring Jesus’s survival.
Basically, if you don’t accept what I’m saying, no matter how weird it sounds, you’re fucked. No debate allowed.
Of course, I would like to know the context, but I get the feeling it won’t be provided.