The Western Man’s Hubris: A Guaranteed Recipe for Failure in the Middle East

Modern Europe is an individualistic and secular society, where the concept of God and religion has been pushed aside. The central creed of contemporary Western civilization is the idea of universal human rights. Men, women, and various transgender identities all have rights that must be respected; prosperity, freedom, and happiness are the core values of this society. Everyone should be free to live according to their own beliefs.

Universal human rights, you say? That means the rights that Europeans consider essential must apply to all human beings on Earth, across all cultures that make up the global mosaic, and in every society. Moreover, when events unfold in ways that don’t align with these values and beliefs, the Western world—absolutely certain of its universal principles—claims the right to intervene, not just from a podium, but by force if necessary. It plays the role of a self-righteous enforcer, as seen in Libya in 2011 when the West took military action against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Europe’s Christian-Catholic Legacy

Is this a new behavior for the Western White Man? Where does this arrogance come from—the absolute conviction of knowing the truth, of deciding what is right and wrong?

It comes from his ancestors, for the Western world is the heir to Christianity. When Christianity emerged, it introduced a radical concept: Catholicism (from the Greek katholikos, meaning universal). It brought the idea of universal truth—the necessity of spreading Christ’s message across the world, even by force. This kind of proselytism was unprecedented in human civilization. Before Christianity, gods were local or national; sometimes, conquerors imposed their gods on others, but their motive was political unity, not religious supremacy. Even when monotheism existed, such as among the Jewish people, it was not forcibly imposed on others.

Christianity, however, spread its faith aggressively, converting South and Central America by force and later doing the same in sub-Saharan Africa. But when modernity “killed God,” the Western world, now orphaned from Jesus, turned to a new deity—the worship of human rights.

The self-imposition of human rights in Western Europe follows a clear pattern. Today, human rights are seen as an absolute horizon—just as Christianity was in past centuries. Yet the White Man of Europe has inherited his ancestors’ worst trait: the compulsion to impose his beliefs on the rest of the world, without asking whether they fit other civilizations.

The new paradigm of human rights is based on the belief that the individual is the fundamental unit of society. In a Western family, children can openly disagree with their parents; they can hold opposing political views, vote differently, and it’s all considered perfectly normal. Conflicts are smoothed over by tolerance.

But in other civilizations, the fundamental unit is not the individual—it is the family or the clan. In traditional Muslim societies, for example, the hamula (clan or tribe) is the basic unit of identity. The individual does not belong solely to themselves; their actions must align with cultural norms. This explains practices like honor killings, which are incomprehensible to the Western mind but are responses to perceived transgressions within the clan.

The Western White Man refuses to acknowledge these cultural differences because he is so convinced of his own values’ universality. And this insufferable arrogance is exercised without restraint, especially in the Middle East.

Western Arrogance in the Middle East

This superiority complex has been on full display since the early 1920s, when Western powers redrew Middle Eastern borders after World War I with no regard for local populations. These artificial states—like Iraq, which forced together Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, and Christians—have been plagued by instability ever since. The same applies to Syria, which groups Sunnis, Alawites, Kurds, Druze, and Christians under one national identity that never truly existed. A hundred years later, these arbitrary divisions are violently unraveling before the West’s bewildered eyes.

More recently, in 2011, this moral arrogance was on full display once again. Bernard-Henri Lévy known as BHL, a famous French Jewish philosopher and activist driven by his almost Christian certainty that he alone knew the truth, convinced French President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Cameron to intervene in Libya. Their justification? Protecting human rights, the famous “responsibility to protect,” which directly contradicts the Westphalian principle of state sovereignty.

And the result? Libya, once a stable country under Gaddafi—albeit ruled by a dictator—was thrown into chaos. Instead of bringing European-style democracy, the intervention plunged Libya into endless violence, with more deaths than Gaddafi could ever have inflicted himself. Tribes that had been pacified under his rule reignited their feuds. His vast arsenal scattered across North Africa, arming Islamist militias in Mali, Chad, and Nigeria. The arrogant intervention of the White Man shattered a society that followed a different set of cultural rules.

And yet, years later, BHL had the audacity to say he would do it all again—out of “moral conviction and responsibility.”

This same arrogance fuels the Western dream of imposing democracy on the Middle East. But is Western democracy truly suited to the region? Just count the number of Arab-Muslim countries that function as Western-style democracies in the Middle East. From the Atlantic coast of Morocco to Iran’s eastern borders, not a single one. Instead, the region is ruled by hereditary monarchs and military dictators. Every so-called “Arab Spring” uprising has ended in an Islamic electoral landslide, not in liberal democracy.

But the Western atheist still clings to his illusions, believing the Arab world will one day embrace his missionary, proselytizing ideology of democracy and human rights.

The Western White Man’s Arrogance: A Dangerous Illusion

Isn’t it high time for the Western White Man to recognize the ideological violence his so-called “generous” vision of universal human rights inflicts on civilizations beyond his own? Isn’t it time he stops repeating the arrogance of his ancestors—who once imposed Christianity by sword and cross—by now imposing human rights through military intervention and economic coercion?

The Latest Western Delusion

Take, for example, the most recent and almost laughable illusion held by Boehler and Witkoff, President Trump’s envoys to the Middle East. They seemed to believe they could swiftly negotiate a deal with Hamas, which remains entrenched in the Gaza Strip. How did they fall into such wishful thinking? By projecting their Western values onto the religiously driven Muslim Brotherhood offshoot governing Gaza.

So, let’s be clear: stop imposing Western expectations on Arab neighbors. Why did Boehler and Witkoff fall into this trap? Because Hamas employed Taqiyya—a concept they were entirely unaware of.

This is not New York, Washington, or London. This is not Paris or Berlin. This is the Middle East. It operates by its own rules—learn them, and act accordingly.