Islam - we're fighting the wrong war with the wrong tools

I find it ironic that the western world stays on friendly terms with arguably the worst of the Islamic nations when it comes to womens rights. 

I find it incredible that the same people shouting at us form the political lecterns about how evil Islam is and how badly it treats women are the same ones that are quite happy to host a Saudi prince and give them the keys to the country if they visit. 

I find it deplorable that we decry in one nation the exact things that we ignore if that nation is rich and powerful.

Why is it that we only ever see Islam in the news as a terrorist force? Over a fifth of the worlds population is Muslim and yet all we ever hear about are the less than one percent of those 1.6bn people who are prepared to die for their faith and take us with them.

How about we start looking at some of the other places, look at the lives of those who are not in the Middle Eastern warzone.

Places like those wonderful and generous allies of ours in Saudi Arabia, where women have the least rights of any nation I can think of. But it's all right, they are the good guys! Religious police in the Gulf Kingdom which is governed by Sharia Law only recently lifted a ban on females riding motorbikes and bicycles – as long as they wear the full-length veil and are accompanied by a male relative.

It is illegal for Saudi women to travel abroad without male accompaniment. They may only do so if their guardian agrees by signing a document know as a 'yellow sheet' at an airport or border crossing.

In November 2012 it emerged women were being electronically monitored with authorities using SMS to track them and inform their husbands of their whereabouts.

And it was only in 2011 that women were given the right to vote and run for office in municipal elections in 2015.

But let's ignore all that, they are our allies! Let's demonise all the other muslims instead, even the ones living in progressive Islamic nations, even the ones with female leaders and equal rights for women, because it's not Saudi Arabias fault, it's just their culture! A culture of misogyny, of repression, true, but hey, they are rich and have oil, so we must be friends, right?

It's time to bring pressure on the countries that deserve it, and stop killing people - including our own - in countries whose sole fault is that there might be some terrorists somewhere in them hills.