Editor-in-chief Ahmad Al-Jarallah blasted a Middle Eastern mindset that has "always led us to conflicts with the outside world invariably ending in defeat for us."

After offering a fairly balanced picture of U.S. involvement in Iraq, Al-Jarallah noted, "The only thing left for Arab regimes, which are out of tune with the rest of the world, is to understand that standing against the United States is no longer the right way to show their patriotism."

What about that savior of civilization, the United Nations - which refused to sanction the U.S. invasion of Iraq? The world body is "no longer able to control the relations between different countries," Al-Jarallah said.

Like-minded Kuwaiti scholar Ahmad Al-Baghdadi took the argument one step further in a series of articles denouncing Middle Eastern "religious thought," saying it led to misogyny, tyranny and terrorism.

Al-Baghdadi makes a clear distinction between the beliefs of Islam and the hate-fueled militancy that infects much of the region, complaining in one report, "[Islamic] religious thought reveres things that religion itself does not instruct [us] to revere."

The Arab scholar even invokes a kind of divine providence to explain the success of the West, saying, "Do you know why Allah helps the secular country? Because it is just. Why doesn't He help countries that build mosques every day? Because these countries are oppressive."

Joseph Taranto contributed to this report.

Editor's note: