ONE should believe in the exchange of ideas and cultures. We should adopt the latest trends if they are benefitting the rest of the world, like secularism, liberalism and democratic values, but that does not mean we should put the West on a pedestal and look at everything through its perspective or seek its approval.

Unfortunately, it seems we always look for a ‘fatherly figure’. The conservatives want the approval of ‘ummah’ or the Arabs. The so-called ‘liberals/leftists’ want the approval of the West. They worry too much about what the West would think about them. One thing we can be absolutely sure about is that we will never be good enough for them. It is just about useless to worry too much about their blanket approval.

Pick any random movie or documentary from the West. Everything outside of their boundaries is depicted negatively. Even developed but politically rival countries, like Turkey, Russia and China, are portrayed negatively despite the fact that one of them happens to be their Nato ally.

Even when someone says he is happy in his country, the narrator would always say authoritarian regimes do not allow people to speak truth and their hearts out. Showing us, the non-Westerners, with something positive by the West is not even a remote possibility.

This is so because once they show the brighter side of the picture, they would not be able to justify their invasions or interferences in the affairs of other countries.

They will not be able to invade countries ‘to bring democracy and enlightenment of Western civilisations’, which is nothing but a euphemism for stealing their resources. Do they even have a moral high ground to judge the others? Are not these the very same people who created shady characters? Fully supported by their media, Western governments continue to pick and choose what to highlight and what to hide. Yemen, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan … the list of interventions is long, if not unending.

Resources from Africa are being stolen by the West for centuries. Thousands of people from minority groups are attacked every year in the United States.

Over 800 Muslims, mostly women, are attacked every year in the United Kingdom, and over 400 of them are acid attacks. And yet they judge us on the basis of human rights.

It is time for the West to do some soul- searching and take corrective measures and leave the rest of the world alone;

free from ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ interventions. The world will syrely be a better place.

Nimra Manzoor
Faisalabad

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2022