Many Islamists now blame the West for the woes in their countries and communities as if they themselves have not participated in the creation of this situation.

In the Cold War, Islamists were generally allies of the West in the confrontation against the Soviet-led socialist world. Islam's theism was pitted against the supposed atheism of the socialists and communists.

Muslim fighters were wittingly used by the West as mercenaries to fight soldiers of national liberation movements in the Third World and Muslim regimes were also used as puppets to suppress socialists and communists in, for example, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia were all Western allies.

In Indonesia, Muslim organisations were mobilised to support the Suharto coup in 1965 and thousands of socialist and communist Indonesians were physically slaughtered. In Afghanistan, Western powers trained and financed the mujahiddin to kill the Russians.

By helping the West to destroy the Cold War international balance of power, Islamists actually participated in the creation of the current unipolar world dominated by their former ally, the United States. Islamists have reaped what they sowed in the Cold War.