In light of the conspicuously duplicitous attitudes adopted by the West toward the cause of liberty in the Arab world, it is amply clear by now that the West is explicitly more comfortable with secular fascism, with all its brutal ugliness, than with Islamic democracy.
 
This is the inevitable conclusion that any honest observer of western behavior in the Middle East would reach.
 
There are those who would argue that Islamic democracy is a contradiction in terms. But this argument is largely disingenuous and likely to be driven by a combination of Islamophobia, ignorance and ill-will as such critics would voice no problem with other religion-based democracies such as the Hindu democracy and Israeli democracy.
 
Centuries-old ill-will toward Muslims
 
Indeed, the embrace by the West of brazenly murderous regimes as in countries such as Syria and Egypt has become quite plain. Even the notoriously half-hearted western reservations about human rights violations by tyrannical Arab regimes have become more infrequent and utterly scant and insincere.
 
Take, for example, the hundreds of recently-passed death- sentences issued by Egyptian "courts" against the bloody coup's political opponents, especially members and supporters of the biggest political group in Egypt, namely the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
Reactions by western capitals to these draconian theatrical sentences have been terse and minimal to say the very least. This gives the impression that western governments are more or less comfortable with virulent secular fascism standing behind this shameless vengeance.
 
To be sure, the West doesn’t lack the required accurate data to know the truth about the situation in every Arab country from Mauritania on the Atlantic to Bahrain in the easternmost part of the Arab world. But the West does lack the necessary rectitude, honesty and good will to pursue a consistently moral policy that is detached from historical vengeance, overwhelming greed and parochial imperialistic expediency.
 
There are numerous legitimate questions any ordinary Arab would raise about the western approach to the cause of liberty in the Arab world, questions that western leaders and spokespersons would either dodge or ignore altogether.
 
So why is the West backing, actively supporting, abetting and enabling the cause of virulent dictatorship and fascism in the Arab world?
 
Why is the West watching, passively if not gleefully, as a manifestly evil and self-absorbed psychopath is murdering his own people and destroying his own country for no reason other than wanting to extend the rule of his clan or sect for a few more years?
 
Why is the west endearing itself to and propping up a murderous dictator, who carried out a bloody coup against democracy and concocted all sorts of false measures, including using the country's justice system to give his criminal acts a façade of legality and legitimacy?
 
Why is the West completely apathetic to decidedly criminal regimes that routinely and consistently violate the basic human rights and civil liberties of their citizens?
 
Doesn't the West realize that the police-state apparatuses in the bulk of Arab countries generate powerful destructive boomerang effects that seriously damage western interests?
 
The answer to such questions is abundantly clear: The West is malicious, and knowingly so. But that is the way it is, as the late CBS News anchor Walter Chronkite used to say.
 
In the final analysis, western officials, who choose to be honest, would tell you rather brazenly that "we are strong, and you are weak, and that the strong can subjugate the weak. We are rich and you are poor, and the rich can dictate and force his conditions on the poor. We do what we want because we can."
 
The ball in the Muslims' court
 
In light, it would be an expression of crippling gullibility and endless naïveté for Muslims to continue to appeal to western morality in the hope that the West would amend it moral compass in deference to the legitimate aspirations of Arab masses. This wishful thinking or day-dreaming is tantamount to seeking justice inside a thieves' den or seeking safety in a snake hole.
 
Have we forgotten that the West that is now watching rather gleefully Bashar el-Assad exterminate the Syrian people and Abdul Fattah el-Sissi install an anti-Islam fascism in Egypt is the very same West that created Israel in Palestine and provided it, and is still providing it, with all the necessary means to liquidate the Palestinian people in order to create a pure Jewish Talmudic state where non-Jews are treated as water carriers and wood hewers?
 
Have we forgotten that the West that is now bombing Muslims in many lands is the same West that exterminated millions of innocent native Americans, and then celebrated the genocide as "manifest Destiny."?
 
The West has always behaved in such manner, which prompted Samuel P. Huntington to admit that "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion…. but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence."
  
Liberty is earned not granted
 
We Muslims need to fathom the timeless principle that liberty is earned not granted.  The West or the entire the world will not do the job on our behalf. We must also not lose direction as we pursue our legitimate goal. To put it more bluntly, we must not lose Islam and democracy in our efforts to establish Islam and democracy.
 
Likewise, we must not strive to please and appease the West. They won't accept us, no matter what we do. Only if and when we abandon our faith will the West alter its approach to us.
 
The Arab poet, I think Imam al-Shafie, may God be pleased with him, said:
 
ولا ترجو السماحة من بخيل    فما في النار للظمآن ماء  
 
“Wala Tarjo-ssamahat min Bakhilen Fama- finnari lithmaani Maao
 
(Don't expect kindness from a cruel man, for the thirsty won’t find water in fire)
 
In short Muslims, individuals and political movements, should stop counting on the West, especially the U.S., UK, and France, to help Muslims attain liberty and true independence. This is because the West is a great part of the problem and can hardly be part of the solution. 


Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and current affairs commentator living in occupied Palestine