mozza,
Quote:The Mughal, the Isfahan, and the Ottoman, empires all encouraged learning and the arts, they adapted with the times
The Mughal and Ottoman empires both implemented Shari'ah law, both fought against "infidels", and both believed in the concept of Caliphate and that Islam must govern all aspects of Muslim's lives. I don't know how you can attempt to claim that's any different than what I've spoken about.
All Islamic Caliphates from the time of the Prophet (pbuh) until the end of the Ottoman period encouraged learning and arts and "adapted with the times".
Actually it's strange that you mention learning and the arts and progress when identifying these empires, as they're considered to be the times when learning, arts and progress had pretty much stagnated in the Islamic world. Perhaps you need to revise your history books?
Quote:and saw in the rise of the Islamic golden age.
Actually the "Golden age" of Islam is not considered to have occured under any of the empires you mentioned. It is considered to have occured in the Middle East under the Abbasids and in Andalus under the Umayyads, both of which were strict implementers of the Shari'ah and who were much closer to the exact teachings of Muhammad (pbuh) than the later empires you mentioned.
The Ottomans and Mughals were considered to exist in the time of decline and stagnance, not the rise of the golden age.
Quote:Do you find it strange that I do not consider all aspects of Islam as evil?
Considering you didn't even get it right, it's not much to boast about
Quote:People are judged in the context of the times they lived in, and while many of the practices from these times we would today find unacceptable, in their day they were culturally accepted.
They didn't implement Shari'ah because it was culturally accepted, they implemented it because it was commanded by God. The funny thing is, they'd make the Talibaan look like moderates
Quote:My point is that if the Islamic culture had not been interrupted by colonial conquest, then Islam would have evolved into a more modern, secular society, like the rest of the world's great nations did, and we would not be witnessing this cultural clash from ignorant people who believe they can transpose medieval thinking,
This is nothing but conjecture. The same conditions simply didn't exist in the Islamic world that drove Europeans to rise up against their religion. That's why the Colonial powers instigated a "renaissance" of their own in the Muslim lands, because they got sick of waiting for it to happen, and for them to be able to spread their secularist ideas to the Islamic lands.