There is something about this crazy simplification.
There’s no such thing as “Western values.” That clean, polished idea never really existed. The West wasn’t handed down from the sky. It was built through war, slavery, blood, and fire. Without that brutal history, it wouldn’t be what it is today. Even the Enlightenment (often praised as the West’s big moment of clarity) didn’t give us clear answers. And it’s not even a century old.
At the center of these so-called values has always been one thing: the creation of an outsider. The non-white, non-Christian, the ones pushed out of the circle. That’s how the West defined itself.
But ideas like secularism, human rights, and democracy, they don’t belong to the West. They belong to all of us. No one culture owns them. They matter because they speak to human dignity. And yet, in both East and West, we see the same disease: nationalist and religious fanatics fighting over who’s better, who owns the truth. But truth doesn’t belong to anyone. And no flag, no religion, no empire can claim it.
Look closely, and you’ll see it’s the same kind of tyranny, whether it’s from Islamists or from Zionist Christians and Jews. Power speaks the same way everywhere. It doesn’t care what god you pray to or where you face when you bow. It just wants to rule, silence, and control.
Islam’s history is filled with oppression and injustice. But Christianity and Judaism weren’t any better. Go beyond the fairy tales. All three were born in times of deep pain, when people were crushed by empire and power. Islam, too, rose in the ruins of falling empires. It didn’t come out of nowhere. It was shaped by fear, violence, and the hope for something different.
So what are these “Western values” people keep talking about? When people rewrite history with slogans, it’s not just ignorance, it’s a lie.
The Ottoman Empire used the Qur’an to justify the Armenian genocide. Saddam Hussein raised the Qur’an while killing Kurds. ISIS shouted Qur’anic slogans as they wiped out the Yazidis. The Taliban still murder Hazara people today in the name of religion.
The Safavids forced Zoroastrians into the desert to die, all in the name of Islam. How different was that from popes who burned people alive, drowned women, turned slavery into God’s will, and claimed divine right to rule?
These weren’t just the actions of bad men. They were systems of power using religion as a tools and a weapon, just like Christian empires did, just like Zionist states do now. And now the same trick is everywhere: two fake choices. One side screams about “tradition” while crushing dissent. The other talks about “freedom” while bombing cities and locking kids in cages.
The problem is that Islam hasn’t been pushed out of power like Christianity has. It still rules, and it still brings misery. And while that happens, Orientalism keeps feeding the fire. One side defends it, the other attacks it, but both speak the same Western language. They erase difference, ignore complexity, and force everything through their rigid lens. What Western values? You’re all the same.
But we need something else. We need a third force. Something that refuses both lies. Something honest. Something human.
Because another world is possible.
What you think?