Any group is measured not by its most enlightened, but by its most greedy, violent, ignorant and flawed; and how it treats them.
That is, all of us have relatives and neighbors, those in our group, our nation and our religion, who embarass and offend. But the only ones of us who can still hold their heads high are those that actively condemn and prosecute those closest to them, in defense of the strangers they have abused.
In Secular nations, society is and should be utterly indifferent to the religion of the offender and victim. Neither is advataged or disadvantaged before the law. And this is why Secular nations disparage religious nations in which the law is unfair.
And know that "secular" does not mean "atheist"; it means that all in society are ruled by the same laws, not by the whim of priests, whatever they call themselves. Laws that are written by men and women, and can be changed by men and women.
In fact, this unfairness is the sole difference between a Moslem who is enlightened, and one who is not. Either he treats all people, and not just men, but women as well, as equal, or he does not. And "equality" is not a vague concept, open to equivocation, and it is not dependent on reciprocation. You are not treating people equally if you demand payment for that treatment from some.
If you demand that a woman wear a burka, she has the same right to demand that you, a man, wear a burka too. And both of you have the right to refuse to wear it. To do otherwise is to say the whim of the priest overrules the law.
If the people vote for religious law, and that those laws be unfair, then the people are wrong. Others are right in damning them as ignorant and unjust. They cannot claim that their "way" is equal to the "way" of those who are just, solely because they voted for it. Democracy demands a higher standard than the will of the majority in all things.
So, all this being said, can Moslems be "enlightened"?
That is a good question. Islam is hemorrhaging believers, and it is noteworthy that they do not just "stop being Moslems", or quit calling themselves Moslems. For the most part, they convert to Christianity; and in many cases *not* because of any great desire to be Christians, but solely so they can then say, "I am not a Moslem, I am a Christian", so that there will be no confusion in their rejection of Islam.
It took even the United States many years to drive its priests out of politics. Priests of all kinds yearn for power over others. Only when the people learned to have a creeping nausea at the very thought a shaman in political office, or a politician beholden to a shaman and his whims, were we able to break free to a much fairer, secular nation.
And it is a struggle that never ends. For not all priests are religious in character, and the atheist priests can be just as despicable.
Although true, that statement can be misleading. Some might interpret it to say, "All priest yearn for power over others, which is false. It is similar to the old saying, "Not all that glitters is gold.", which is true, often being misstated as, "All that glitters is not gold.", which is false.
LOL. Unlike politicians, who self-select for power over others.