For Europeans and Americans, Middle East is considered the Orient — part of the East. However, from a mythological point of view, Middle East, where Islam dominates, is part of the West, for it is rooted in monotheism just like Christian Europe and America. Even atheist, secular, scientific West that believes in liberal democracy follows the same paradigm. They don't believe in one God. But they do believe in one truth, and mock alternative narratives of the world as "post-truth". In fact, the way Western intellectuals use the word "post-truth" contemptuously is exactly the way colonisers and missionaries used the word "myth" in the 19th century to dismiss those they wished to conquer.

Western myth, or the dominant worldview that shapes the long history of the West, remains singular and linear. We live only once. This one life has a destination. For the Greeks and Romans, it was Elysium, heaven of heroes. For the Christians and Muslims, it was God's Heaven. For the Communist, it is the end of private property. For the Humanist, it is the implementation of Universal Human Rights. For the folklorist, it is the Happily Ever After.