dhj, it is good to see someone in agreement with me on such issues! Do you live in Pakistan? Pakistan could benefit from voices like you!
We agree on most things so I will only comment on a few things.
The Ottomans did give rights to minorities, just not equal rights. That said, they gave far more rights to their religious minorities than the rest of the world during its heyday, although it fell behind in this regard when Western nations like the US adopted the notion of equal rights for religious minorities.
I agree nations have to be placed in their historical context. Ancient Rome, Persia, and Greece would all be backwards today but during their time they were the most or one of the most progressive places on the globe, a key factor in their success. The same applies to the Arab empire and the Ottomans. Again, this was one reason they succeeded. When Spain was committing ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Jews the Ottomans were welcoming them and had religious pluralism. By the same token, today the US and Canada are probably the two best nations when it comes to religious equality and are the standard against which other nations have to be judged in that regard.
I am a student of history because it is interesting but also because you can learn lessons from history that can be applied today. Muslims need to look more at the spirit, not the letter, of the successful Muslim empires of the past and the consistent thread is they were always very open compared to the rest of the world, usually the most open societies--and open not just with respect to minorities but in all areas such as freedom of thought. For example, it is in the Arab empire where the concept of academic freedom in universities was developed.