Hi Najib,

A thoughtful comment, many thanks for that.

"The west" is a very generic term and is in many ways akin to terms like "Muslim", or for that matter "Christian". These are umbrella terms that cover a vast diversity of often conflicting thoughts and actions.

Example 1: If somebody should suggest that Muslims are violent and cite 9/11 and other similar incidents as an example, you would be quite rightly outraged and upset because the abhorrent thoughts and actions of a small group of fanatics does not in any way represent the vast majority.

Example 2: If somebody should suggest that Islamic society is oppressive and opposed to basic human rights and cite Saudi Arabia as an example, you would once again be right to be outraged and upset. What is true about Saudia is that a small sect, Wahhabism, rules with a rod of iron. I think it fair to say that 99% of the wider Muslim world would consider the Wahhabies to be crazy (my percentage might be a tad wrong, but probably in the right ball park).

So my point is this, it is tricky to use terms such as "The West" and attribute things to everybody under that umbrella term because it is in many ways inevitable that there will be vast swathes of people, often a majority, that reject such attributes with "Nope, that is not us".