At 16, Ganesh got a job in Qatar. Two months later he was dead

Truly sorry, you see I've studied too much history to believe anything remotely like "fundamental values of morality and kindness" exists. There are no values independent from ideology. Besides, you should get out more. Find a way to talk to one of those niqab'ed women, ask them what their values on the equality between men and women and then tell me how fundamental those values are.

There is no such thing as an inbuilt human morality. You wouldn't believe what some societies did, or even what they considered kind. You know how they say a "Spartan" upbringing these days ? Here's what it used to mean : Spartans are famous for considering the following a kindness : when a (male) kid turns 7, lock up his mother, and leave the kid with a small spear in the woods, where wolves are sure to find him. If he came back without a dead wolf, do it again until the kid is dead, or a wolf is. They considered this a kindness, both to the kid and to his mother, and also to the state. Tell me, how does this fit with your fundamental values of morality and kindness ?

Or read a few Greek plays. Pay attention to who fucks who, and how many people end up poisoned/stabbed/otherwise dead as a result. I don't care how free you think sexuality should be, I guarantee you will not find that behaviour moral or acceptable. Yet the Greek heroes are as bad as the losers, and they are certainly depicted as extremely moral. That they (sometimes) raped their own mother, sisters or daughters does not affect the story's judgement on their morals at all. And let's just stay away from the morality of the Greek gods, because while they are depicted as the definition of moral, you will massively disagree with their petty, cruel and mass-killing squabbles. Moral, in ancient Greece, it seems to me, is whatever behaviour gives you military victory.

If fundamental values don't exist, your argument falls apart, since it means you can only judge behaviour from the perspective of a religion or (maybe) ideology. That means that you yourself judge from an ideology (and frankly, you judge from the perspective of Christian values), and that your definition of an extremist is also relative.

For example, one who doesn't believe in fundamental values, might take offence at you judging a person based on "fundamental" (ie. your own) values. Which is of course exactly what you accuse extremists of.

Bahrain and Kuwait mainly have issues due to large minority groups being repressed. Saudi is huge, and relatively diverse, with lots of political strife under the surface. UAE and Qatar are the expected super-rich with mostly imported slave labor. Jordan, Syria, Egypt don't have meaningful oil so no one cares. Iraq and Iran are largely having issues due to sectarianism, war, and isolation; Iran seems like it was the best country in the region before the Shah and revolution.

There are friendly/warm locals in all of these countries, but there's a clear social hierarchy, and only white Americans and Western Europeans, or other Gulf Arabs, will be treated as humans (some exception for Japanese in Kuwait), generally, and even then, the culture isn't as accessible to complete strangers as a lot of other cultures.

My mother worked at a TV & Radio broadcast station for a (...the) major oil company there (side job, father was in oil @ same company), and found out the janitorial staff in her building were going both unpaid and unfed during their workdays for months at a time. I remember helping her with food-drives to pull food from expat communities for them.

It was well known to expat kids running around on-compound that 'gardeners' (generally bangladeshi and nepalese) were absolutely second-class citizens. These people were absolutely degraded at the hands of Saudi nationals and expats of a variety of ethnicities and nationalities (yes, westerners too). I've seen them yelled & cursed at, spit on, and beaten by company Security officers (generally al-Dossari Saudi's, but not always). The horror stories are literally countless.

There seems to have been a lot of discussion in this thread as to the effect that religion has played as a cause of this treatment of migrant workers. I DO NOT know (nor believe) that Islam has a direct role to play, but I can say confidently that this is a reflection of culture. There is a general acceptance of inherent difference in levels of humanity that is tied to national (and tribal) identities in many Middle Eastern countries. I would wager that the majority of the population (at the time I was living there, demographics change fast, and there are a boatload of young people in KSA) would tell you that a Sri Lanken / Bangladeshi / Pakistani != a Brit / American / Frenchmen, etc., and not feel that bad about it.

As I observed it, some of these people believed this as coldly as it is stated above, while a great many see it as a fact the whole world thinks this, but their culture/mindset is 'realistic' (shudders) or honest enough to admit it.

I DO NOT believe this is simply a 'rich taking advantage of poor' scenario. In my experience, these people are mistreated far worse than necessary for profit, or probably quite often to the detriment of it. I think it has more to do with cultural definitions of identity than anything else.

I don't know if you can read Arabic: ذهب أبو حنيفة وشيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية، وهو رواية عن أحمد، إلى أن الحر يقتل بالعبد؛ لعموم قوله عليه الصلاة والسلام: «المؤمنون تتكافأ دماؤهم، ويسعى بذمتهم أدناهم» وهذا القول هو الصواب.

And from another source:

: القول الراجح أنه يقتل به؛ لقوله تعالى: وَكَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهَا أَنَّ النَّفْسَ بِالنَّفْسِ وَالْعَيْنَ بِالْعَيْنِ [المائدة:45]، وقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: (لا يحل دم امرئ مسلم إلا بإحدى ثلاثة: النفس بالنفس) وقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: (المؤمنون تتكافأ دماؤهم ويسعى بذمتهم أدناهم) وقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: (لا فضل لعربي على عجمي إلا بالتقوى) وقول الله تعالى: إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ [الحجرات:13] فهذه العمومات تدل على أن الحر يقتل بالعبد كما أن العبد يقتل بالحر، وليس هناك نصوص صحيحة تدل على أن الحر لا يقتل بالعبد.

Both of which mention that a free man can be killed for a slave.

Furthermore, I don't know why you are raising the issue of slavery. It is not related to the thread topic. The workers in the Gulf countries are not slaves in the actual sense of the word - it has very particular connotations.

That being said, I agree that the way those countries treat the laborers is inhumane, disgusting, and anti-Islamic, and should be abolished.