>>543665157
This is because average sci-fi/fantasy muslims are built around the quite romantic ideas of previous centuries before aforementioned religious fundamentalism took over the whole religion. Like sure, they were always strict but back then so were the Christians and even Protestants (honestly more so with certain denominations). Some people might point at the recently popular ZUTT gotcha but forget that religions are stupid as fuck in general like that. If I had a penny for every time Jesus had gay sex in known apocryphal texts I'd have like five cents or something and that's with Vatican actively hunting that shit down for decades.
Cold War (and Israel, honestly) absolutely ruined the entire region.