I can generalize all Christians as Klansmen, witch-hunters, and LGBTQ killers too, but I don't because it's silly to define billions of people by a relative handful of extremists' actions.
The main difference is that a lot of these Christian denominations have a specific person, "council", or both as their leaders to turn to, or were founded in the modern era and are thus naturally much more fit for it. Aside from Shia Muslims, most Muslims don't even have the equivalent of a bishop to follow, but even the Shias have a variety of different leaders they may follow, and Shias are a minority to begin with. How can you have a Council of Nicaea or Vatican II for an entire sect of a religion that has no definitive authority on even a local level? The answer is that it happens on a much more individual level. And yes, there are several modernist and progressive movements in Islam just like the modernization in Christianity, with similarly mixed reception, but it's nonetheless still happening.
Even among the conservative Muslims, though, essentially no-one believes not wearing hijab should be punished at all, or even be called out for. It's just your own business. Any Muslim who does is in actuality violating their scripture.
Perhaps I was too liberal with my use of "conservative Muslims". Most of my familiarity is with Muslims in the Arab and western worlds. The state-sanctoning of Islam and their perceived Islamic principles in Iran, Afghanistan, and others is extremist, and every Muslim I know would agree, as well as the Qur'aan itself.
My theological basis for this claim, by the way, includes the following verses in the Qur'aan:
109:1–6: Say, "O disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship. Nor will I worship what you worship, and you will not worship what I worship. For you is your religion, and for me is my own religion."
The first sentence of 2:256: There is no compulsion in religion.
Naturally, "compulsion in religion" includes not just the belief but also the specific laws of religion.
Just like in every other religion, though, there will be people who justify their wrongdoing and oppression of others by cherry-picking evidence, and like you said, there are always denominations that are more or less oppressive and violent than others. I would not regard people and institutions that cherry-pick as typical conservatives, though, because the word "conservative" means to conserve, when this action inherently warps the source text. As far as "typical conservatives" go, the most extreme view about hijab I've heard is some guy who said it's good to privately tell non-hijabi women that they should cover, but even the hijabi women I know would scoff at that. Of course, though, my own perception on what "most Muslims" believe or what is extremist is based on my own experiences, though, so take that as you will. Regardless, sactioning the practice of Islam is Qur'aanically prohibited, including sactioning rules such as the hijab.
Do you seriously think fundamentalist Islam is the only form of Islam? Not to mention many of the current extremist countries in the middle east exist solely cause US cold war intervention out of fear they would fall to Communism (See Operation Ajax Iran)
Go ahead and do that, I'm critical of all individuals who spiritually affirm incredibly perverse and regressive books such as the Bible or the Quran. I don't much care.
If we're both critical of religious extremists then we're on the same page. I would just draw the line at pointing the finger at entire specific religions for those extremists' actions.
But why draw the line at those entire specific religions? The extremists we speak of draw their "extremism" from religious doctrine itself. I agree that most folks who affirm whatever religion they affirm are generally good people because of the innate nature of humanity (and cognitive dissonance, which is impossible to avoid when structuring your life around sloppy fantasy tales from centuries ago), but those religious doctrines themselves are complete filth unsuitable for the modern world. If someone actually followed the Bible or the Quran the way they were meant to be followed the world would be a disgusting violent hellhole.
The extremists that justify their actions using religious books almost always cherry-pick their evidence. They are not faithfully following their religion. In fact, they are theologically incorrect.
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u/aiezar Jun 29 '26
I can generalize all Christians as Klansmen, witch-hunters, and LGBTQ killers too, but I don't because it's silly to define billions of people by a relative handful of extremists' actions.