Generally on OP topic, but as a personal vignette [edited from an earlier post on BF] as the Western personal level is not often reported on in the media - I lived during part of my career at various times for a total of 14 years as a legal resident in various Muslim countries in the Gulf and in the Maghreb, pre- and post-Desert Storm 1
I learned me some Arabic (fiendishly difficult grammar), got to know the mindset, got involved with the culture (language and literature and poetry), made friends with some of the locals wherever I was, mixed daily with Muslims, business-wise, socially and in the street - I was entirely at ease in Muslim society and its landscape.
I experienced as a resident the strict Kuwaiti and Qatari very conservative Islamic culture, the secular Islamic Libyan culture and ditto in Casablanca Morocco, and the mix in Abu Dhabi.
In Libya (pre-Ghaddafi murder) I could have been in southern Italy - not a beard or dishdasha or hijab in sight. All western dress. The girls wore very short shorts. Coming from the Gulf I was taken aback by their unseemly show of flesh * lol. There were no religious overtones at all (Ghaddafi made sure of that). I made some very good Libyan friends (not heard from since Ghaddafi was deposed - an enormous error by the West). I loved Libya and leaving there was one of the saddest days of my expat life. The only other posting I liked equally was Japan.
I got on OK with the average individual Arab/Muslim (as I did with other nationalities) and enjoyed the humor, the traditional tribal (especially in the Gulf) hospitality and conservative family values. But on the other hand I did not admire the indolence and rentier mindset of the Gulf and indeed of many Muslims - (Malaysia is a good example of this). I was conflicted in that I generally liked the individuals but not the culture. That is partly a TW thing, not just Islam.
To work there you need to realize that the mindset of the Arab/Maghreb world (Muslim) is very different to a Westerner's. It is tribal. And outside the tribal group there is no shame in lying (as we define it). It is natural. To blame others is usual. The temperament is aggressive, easily offended, potentially violent. You see that in the way the "refugees" are behaving. It is classic Middle East behavior. When living in their lands I worked around that - expats have to do that to work there. If they think you are weak you will be taken advantage of. That is another M/E trait. It is bred in them down to the bone. That is a cultural trait, and when you live there you can understand it - you have to acculturate yourself to a degree in order to avoid being too judgmental. Best to find commonality, in order to rub along.
Anyway, from my experience I know (unlike many westerners who just read the papers/watch TV and see Muslim stuff going on) that there are various forms of Islam (not talking about the Shiites and Sunnis) and the average Mohammed and Jamilla just want to live a normal life like we do. And pre-Wahhabi it was very laid back - very few hijabs etc in Egypt and the Maghreb/Malaysia/Indonesia...
But the Wahhabis have poisoned it and Islam is now being taken over by ill-educated primitive morons, many if whom would be otherwise in jail or tossing burgers. I can elaborate on this but not here, other than to say that a Pakistani lawyer colleague of mine in Kuwait - himself a Muslim, of course - said to me that the Gulf Arabs need an extreme form of Islam to control them as they are ignorant tribal barbarians despised by the educated Muslim world. And Egypt is the apex of this world.
The Wahhabi sect is essentially a Bronze-Age mindset (as are arguably all of the 3 Abrahamic religions in their original guise) locked in a loop of act, revenge and reprisal. Islam at that level is not the religion of "peace" at all. This was coined by George Bush for domestic reasons and of course was seized upon by Islam's proponents and apologists. The Arabic root word for Islam means submission. It is the religion of submission. If you do not submit you are dead. That is when you get peace.
Sir Winston Churchill got it right in his 1899 book "The River War," in which he describes Muslims he apparently observed during Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
The comment about Christianity (which can be read broadly so as to embrace a robust belief in and commitment to Western values) is a key statement in respect of the West's resolve to combat Islamism. It is being eroded by the cultural Marxists and their Hegelian dialectic. Which is their (the extreme Left's) aim, of course.
When I was living in Kuwait the Twin Towers fell. When I went outside there were car horns tooting, guns fired in celebration and candy handed out in the streets.This from those saved by the Allies from the Iraqis. I was deeply shaken (as I had lived with these folk for many years) and then disgusted, and then just a cold disdain developed. From that day on I realized we were at war with fundamentalist Islam.
But I remain conflicted on a human, non-ideological level. For, example I recall when I was in a hospital waiting room in Ben Ghashier, Libya, watching on CNN a bunch of Arabs/Muslims being slaughtered by the Allies in Desert Storm 2. I was the only Westerner in the room, and as I saw the carnage on TV, chatting in my Gulf Arabic dialect to an old guy sitting next to me, I began to feel a bit uneasy, because I knew if I was back in Houston Texas in a reverse scenario I would probably have been beaten up. But everyone was cool and we chatted on. Mu mushkula, insh'allah...
Agreed that fundamentalist Islam is not mainstream Islam, and to an extent you can sympathize with the moderate Muslims having been captured by the radicals. But Islam and the moderate Muslims are the sea through which the extremists swim. You cannot separate the two, especially in the West. Unless Wahhabism is destroyed the only way to combat fundamentalist Islam is to pull the plug in the Western countries and drain the sea. Man, woman, child and goldfish. Kallas. And cut the money off. But that is a whole different topic.
But funnily enough, I do miss to some extent living in my expat Muslim lands. I miss the relaxed and laid back ambience, and the good humor and stolid stoicism even in bad times. We can learn a lot from that...