I: The author of this article.

Her: A Middle Eastern Student at the University of London.

I: Are you following what’s happening in Egypt right now?

Her: Sometimes. Why?

I: People have taken to the streets, and there are bloody clashes.

Her: I know. What’s new? Isn’t this typical behaviour for your violent societies? Surely, the Islamists are behind this chaos.

This exchange took place between me and a student in the heart of one of the West’s most prominent ‘centres of civilisation’—at the University of London. What makes it even stranger is that this ‘intellectual’, who is supposed to be a future specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, could be so ignorant and narrow-minded. Perhaps it is our misfortune as Arabs that someone like her might hold a position of authority one day. She speaks Arabic fluently, but beyond that, her skills seem limited.

This immature person, with her flippant and simplistic remarks about such momentous events, is not an exception to the general pattern of Western thought. Europeans and Westerners tend to believe that a friendly dictatorship is better than a hostile Islamist government. Their limited cultural perspective reduces the world to black and white, in societies afflicted by colour blindness due to the absence of sunlight for much of the year.

From the depths of this pot of ignorance—embodied in this simple-minded, future decision-maker—to the heights of global political power in Washington, there is little difference. The blindness is the same, and the coldness is the same. The only real distinction is about 30 years separating that student from the fierce dictators’ supporter Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State.

The ‘respectable’ Mrs Clinton commented on the current developments in Egypt following the ‘Day of Rage’ and its bloody confrontations with the regime: ‘Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable.’

One wonders, at times, about the comments made by these political mouthpieces on the events unfolding in The Arab world. It is as if they remain unaware that in our countries, alongside the imagined camels, deserts, and harems—the images their fantasies like to conjure—we also have the internet, satellite channels, and political blogs that expose our dire, humiliating political reality. We also have minds capable of distinguishing right from wrong, corruption from integrity.

We know well who is with us and who is against us. And it is clear: they, the West, are against us. Mrs Clinton and her European blind followers are gripped by fear of being exposed and seeing their Arab cronies fall. When that happens, it will unleash a flood of scandals and conspiracies spanning over four decades of supporting dictatorships for their own interests.

What will American politicians say when their complicity is revealed to their citizens, who cannot even afford basic private healthcare packages? ‘Sorry! We were funding dictatorships with your tax money.’

And what justification will EU leaders offer their citizens and taxpayers regarding violating the so-called ‘European values’? Will they admit that their economic wealth is built on dubious Euro-Mediterranean partnership agreements designed to perpetuate unjust privileges for their investors and arms producers, and continue draining the resources of developing countries after the colonial model became outdated?

The Tunisian youth and their Egyptian counterpart have succeeded in stirring a storms that are stripping away the last fig leaves concealing the ugliest flaws of the West. They have thrown Western systems into disarray, leaving them uncertain whether to stand tall for the cameras or cling desperately to the withered fig leaf that no longer hides their shame.

This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.