Conclusion • 249rule, but his puritanical values could not cope with the innovations that
flooded his country because of the oil revenues. He died a bitterly disillu¬
sioned man. None of these leaders, however hard they tried to forge their
people into nation-states, managed to establish a set of values to guide
their successors. All equated westernization with modernization.
Some day, we hope, a synthesis will be achieved between Islam as a sys¬
tem of beliefs and behavioral norms, on the one hand, and the values of an
industrialized free society, on the other. Perhaps human rights will be
respected, and governments will become democratic. Until then, authori¬
tarian leaders seem likely to remain the chief agents for change in inde¬
pendent Middle Eastern countries.