Dr. Sanity takes a look at the pathological child-rearing practices in Islamic countries in her post "They Have To Be Carefully Taught".
There's a lot of things that we tend to ignore - but one thing we dismiss or don't realize just how much of an effect it could have on a culture is the course of learning the children proceed through in order to fit them into their cultural roles.
How warped does a culture have to be to get a 12-year old indoctrinated to a point where he'll hack off someone's head?
And how baldly do they have to show their dysfunctionality before we will recognize it for what it is? The examples of child abuse in the above links would have folks here in the US calling DEFACS in a heartbeat, yet we see it excused as an apparently harmless manifestation of their cultures, and we are told tacitly that we shouldn't condemn it because we don't understand it.
I'm sorry, but I have a hard time looking at child abuse and thinking it's harmless, and that it has no effect on the actions or growth of a culture. It takes a lot of twisting to get a head to the point where suicide bombing is considered the highest function of a fulfilling life.
Religion of peace, my ass. Years back I thought it would be possible to coexist - but the more I'm seeing, the more I'm having very, very severe doubts about the ability of Islam to cope with the freedom of thought and function exemplified in Western culture. The examples cited in the above posts show a culture that's very, very insecure, and it's not surprising that there are factions within Islam seeking to destroy that which threatens it and makes it insecure.
The question arises, however, of what will be needed before Western culture reacts, and does what's needed (which I can barely visualize) to survive.
It may indeed come down to an 'us or them' situation. Based on what I've seen and read - I'm on the side of the West.
J.