By the Muslim calendar this is the year 1435. I think it's interesting to compare Islam today with Christianity at an equivalent period. At that time Europe was largely made up of what were effectively near-theocracies where the Church exercised a huge amount of secular power and influence, and where dissent and heresy was ruthlessly suppressed with extreme violence. The Middle East now seems to be experiencing something rather similar. Is this coincidence, or is it a phase of development which all religions pass through?

Of course what we are really talking about is how Muslim and Christian societies and cultures use their religion to regulate and control, rather than the religions themselves.