I live in Saudi and get this crap constantly. I don’t get quite as much static about Sharia though because Saudi is (theoretically) run on Sharia lines and any fool can see that it isn’t working all that well. Calling them on their own faults isn’t very productive though. The hard-core just assume that you are a bigoted Moslem-basher or have been completely taken in by Jewish lies and propoganda. Anyone professing to be a Muslim who is caught lying, cheating, abusing his wife or children is explained away as a “minor aberration” or “not really a Muslim” while a Westerner doing the same thing is assumed to be average. God forbid that anyone would point out problems caused by running a modern country on laws laid down by tribal chiefs in the 7th century. Any criticism is automatically assumed to be due to a hatred of Islam when the truth is that most people don’t really give a dman if they would just shut up about it.
Much of the problem is with the schools and the enormous clout Islam has on education. Students in public schools here are taught from the start that any perceived problems or injustices are caused by Jews, Israelis, the Mossad, the CIA, or Westerners in general. Children are taught this kind of thing and (unsuprisingly) believe it. Westerners, especially Americans, are routinely asumed to be rampant sex-maniacs and alcoholics while Jews are descibed as cunning and bloodthirsty schemers. Saudi now has an entire generation of adults who have been through the educational system and learned things like “Islamic Jurisprudence” and “Koranic Recitation” at the expense of secular subjects. The poor guys generally receive good marks in these subjects and after gradution expect to get a high-paying job with a modern company. Needless to say, when their expectations are dashed they become bitter and disillusioned, prime terrorist fodder.
We recently had a woman in Saudi who had her face published in the news, showing how badly her husband had beaten her. She looked like she had been in a bad auto accident. The fact that a lot of women are beaten by their husbands here was not really news. The shock was that a woman would publicly complain about it and try to get it stopped. Social issues like this are swept under the rug ASAP as, since the country is run on Shariia lines, a social criticism is in effect a criticism of Shariia, something that could leave one open to a charge of blasphemy which carries the death penalty.
Anyway, Islamic government is very far from being any kind of a paradise.
All the best
Testy