Naomi,
Western leaders have to be Christian - Reagan, Thatcher, Blair, Bush 1&2, Obama and Cameron. Their ideology is driven by their Christian beliefs, and that has resulted in ruination for the middle east and north Africa.
Their desire for domination over the Russians has destabilised the whole region. The British and French meddled when we acquired the remains of the Ottoman Empire. But things got a lot worse after WWII with the onset of the cold war and the ascendancy of The US.
Communism was ungodly, and our Christian leaders have torn the middle east apart trying to drive the Russians out. In the process they have alienated scores of countries and hundreds of millions of people against our duplicious ways.
The big change came in 1980. The Iranian revolution overthrough a US puppet regime and encouraged the muslim world that they could overthrough their puppet leaders.
Also in 1980, the Russian War in Afghanistan saw the emergance of religious freedom fighters from across the muslim world, prepared to fight a religious war to replace the Russians with a fundamental muslim rule in Afghanistan. So the US gave Bin Laden and his fighters money, weaponry and expertise to beat the Russians. The Taliban took over and Bin Laden set up Al qaeda. It has been downhill ever since.
We have been reaping what we have sown ever since.