Middle East Grad Class

    Ok so while I was in Grad School at Mississippi I took a History of the Middle East class and it was really interesting and opened my eyes to many things.  I had to write a research paper, because what would a history class be without a research paper, and I decided to write about women's rights in Islam.  I find this an interesting topic to discuss for many reasons. I mean other than the obvious, Islam is a fairly young religion, especially when compared to Christianity so, what makes us Christians an authority to judge others.  I mean our country was founded on the concept that all men are created equal yet we had slavery, fought a war over it and persecuted legally one race of people until 1865.  The continued to persecute them until 1965 and the Voting Rights Act.  We even still persecute them today.
    Even as a country founded on the belief that all men are created equal, we persecute half of the population.  The population of women.  Women in the U.S. (a Christian country) didn't get the right to vote until 1920 and that only happen after many courageous women starved and fought for that right (for which I am extremely grateful).  Women are still treated poorly.  There are no strict Domestic Violence laws on the books, until the mid 1900s women had to be covered from the chest down (or they would be known as term I'm not going to say)...So again I ask, what gives us that right to judge another religion or culture for doing something that we ourselves did to our women and other minorities.
    I realize this is the 21st Century and things should be improved but I think before we can expect other countries to treat their women properly, then maybe we the U.S. should treat our women better and lead by example.  We need to stop judging and persecuting those whom we don't understand and instead of being scared of the unknown, learn about it.  Knowledge is at the center of everything and the more you/we have the better off you/we will be in the end.
    Anyway, that's just my thought for the day....and keep in mind that it is just my opinion.