Do you think ordinary Muslim people have a good understanding of their faith, in the absence of a formalised theocracy? I grew up in the Middle East, in the Gulf. A good family friend, a Shia, was keen to show off some of the local mosques. Where we were, the oldest mosques were probably 18th Century, if that. The construction was mostly a sort of wattle and daub affair; a wood frame, infilled mud, and botched bricks. He was utterly convinced, and very proud, that the oldest mosque was 4000 years old. Someone told him this. For most of the muslim world, interpretation of scripture is effectively by a lay preacher, in some cases, a criminal who has "found god", leading to radically different attitudes and view points. You get that in the Christian world, especially in North America with its nutty sects and cults. In the UK, the Rev. Ian Paisley formed his own church (literally just one church) after being told he couldn't talk in a Presbyterian Hall. Attitudes expressed by Northern Ireland Protestants and Catholics are pretty different to English Protestants and Catholics. So when you say you have lived in "Muslim Countries", what does that mean? You've lived then in Indonesia, Seychelles, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia, Albania, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Guyana, and so know the differences and similarities between of them. I know Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are pretty radically different, and they are next door to each other.
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