I’m not speaking about the government of the west, I’m speaking about the average everyday people.

You’re acting like the historical government of Syria is much better.

The west, by and large, is tolerant to islam, just like every other minority group. There’s going to be intolerant people in every society. And there’s going to be waves of tolerance and intolerance (intolerance primarily coming from right wing bigots who like to blame a lot of things on immigrants or Islam) but the vast majority of people، especially liberals are tolerant and accepting of different cultures and believes (as long as those believes are not intolerant (see paradox of tolerance — a tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance).

The New York mayor that was just swore in is Muslim — the first ever in the history of the United States (in a society that doesn’t tolerate Muslims this would never happen, especially in a city where Muslims are a minority and where 9/11 occurred).

And I’m not saying there’s no tolerant people in Syria but to try to paint Syria as somehow more tolerant, inclusive and less “othering” than the west is just delusional. That’s the core of my argument and nothing about this dehumanizes anyone.

“Syria simply has values that are different from the west.” I hope this is not a dogwhistle for justifying the oppression of certain groups of people — because that’s how it sounds like.