Why does the West conspire against Arabs and Muslims?

“Some have a strong belief that America and Western countries conspire against Arab nations.”

It may be difficult to convince some Arabs and Muslims to let go of their deeply ingrained belief that the world, especially the West, is conspiring against them and their countries. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort.

The reason behind this belief, however, lies not in any evidence or proof of such a conspiracy, but rather in the absence of such evidence. The spread and solidification of this belief specifically stem from the lack of such evidence — hence, making it difficult, among other things, to discuss and debate it.

However, like any belief, it arises from a personal desire and readiness to believe in it regardless of facts and evidence because it serves a greater purpose for the believer. In our case, this purpose is the need to justify the current deteriorating situation experienced by Arab and Islamic societies.
And because our culture and religious and social heritage facilitate shifting responsibility onto others and encourage blaming others for everything that happens to us, the prevalent mindset suggests that this deterioration must be caused by the collusion of nations working day and night to keep us backward, weak, and submissive!

This mentality or pattern of thinking ignores time, place, events, figures, and evidence, and cares little or much for the obvious or sound logic of things.

In addition to there being no logical reason for the West to conspire against Arabs and Muslims (as they pose no threat today except to themselves), the reality on the ground also goes directly against the alleged Western conspiracy theories.

So, what is the West’s interest here?

Is its interest in keeping Arab and Islamic countries in a state of backwardness, underdevelopment, wars, and social divisions?

This situation harms Western countries and causes them serious problems. Foremost among these problems is the exportation of this huge number of people in the form of refugees and migrants. It is striking how this issue alone has become (and will remain for some time) a concerning obsession for many European countries.

The instability, wars, and conflicts in the region also have security and political ramifications for neighbouring countries, including the spread of terrorist groups, criminal gangs, human trafficking, and other problems.

Therefore, the United Nations, the United States, and European countries intervene in an attempt to persuade the parties to reach political solutions to the ongoing crises. Some of these countries provide economic assistance and hold conferences to raise funds with the aim of assisting incumbent governments or relevant authorities in creating some stability in these countries or at least managing the crisis with less violence, but unfortunately, often to little avail.

The clear problem is that these countries do not need someone to conspire against them; they conspire against themselves. The crises in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Algeria, and elsewhere are local or regional crises.

These are crises whose causes, circumstances, and contexts are known to observers and scholars of these societies.

Of course, there are those who argue about the responsibility of governments and ruling authorities here and there for this failure. This may seem true on the surface, but the reality is that we face a general societal failure, as values, customs, concepts, and general culture are shared between governments and people, and therefore, responsibility is shared.

Attempts to shift responsibility away from peoples, individuals, values, and culture and solely onto the governments bring us back to the same aforementioned problem, i.e., the conspiracy theory that the West conspires against Arab and Islamic countries through their imposed local leaders and other allegations and nonsense that resonate with some Arabs and Muslims.

This logic assumes that removing these leaders will solve the problem. However, leaders change, for one reason or another, ministers, officials, and even Western countries change their strategies & plans. Yet the problems of Arab and Islamic countries remain and worsen. And also, with them, the conspiracy theories and alleged conspiratorial mentality persist!

The reality is that this situation will not change until we recognise our responsibilities as societies and individuals and act on that basis. And when we do so, we will not need conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, we still seem far away from this goal, and the efforts made in this regard range from very shy to very modest. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort.