This American used to be a liberal and was shocked by what she was told in college about Muslims “I went to college where a social work professor asked our class, what are you doing on an everyday basis to combat racism and prejudice and bigotry? So I raised my hand as a really proud, liberal, naive young woman. I raised my hand so proud and I said, well, when I go to the airport, I always go out of my way to be really nice and smile at Middle Eastern men. because I assume that people have been really mean to them at the airport, so I always go out of my way to smile at them. And she looked at me in front of the entire class and said, never do that again, because in their culture, smiling at a man means that you're a prostitute, so never do that again” “I was stunned into silence. And I don't know who needs to hear this today, but sympathy toward an ideology that is openly hostile, brutally oppressive and objectifying to women is not empathy. It's actually what I would call Western privilege. You have the privilege of extending sympathy to men who buy into this radical ideology because you have never been a Middle Eastern woman subject to being under it. How you look at them will never change how they look at you” For those that didn’t know this, it’s real. In Muslim culture a woman smiling at a man that is not her husband is considered haram (forbidden) and strongly prohibited Muslims say a woman uncovering her face and smiling at a man can lead to evil, here’s the actual reasoning “It is haraam for a woman to uncover her face or to smile at a non-mahram man, because of the evil to which that may lead.” Our cultures are not equal. Islam is not compatible with Western Civilization