These middle eastern "civilizations" which torture and mutilate their own children... it's hard to see such barbarity winning out in the very long run against intelligence and human rights.
violence is the undisputed rule of life. rationalize the power of intelligence to whatever degree you may .... the bigger guy is still gonna wipe the floor with the smaller one. and if an entire homogenous block of the world agrees on a core set of violent tenets, they are bestowed a greater capacity to violence.