"Since its creation, the United Nations (UN) has been nothing but a Western tool, which has harmed Muslims more than it has benefited them," wrote Reem Al Faisal, a Jeddah-based Saudi photographer, in yesterday’s issue of Arab News.

"(The UN has) given our enemies and all who wish to destroy us a legal cover to pillage and kill in Muslim lands at will from Palestine to Somalia to Afghanistan — the latest masquerade of boycotting the legally elected government of Hamas by the West and preventing all other nations from helping them is more proof that we can no longer get our rights from a Western organisation disguised as an international body built to protect the rights of all nations," she added.

Al Faisal said that it was time to liberate Muslim nations from the tyranny of Western institutions like the UN, the World Bank, and the IMF, "which have brought nothing but misery and pain to all of us."

"If we want our rights to be respected we have to impose them through our own international institutions and not look for justice from a source that only works to protect its national interests and which rarely conforms to our desires and even less to ideals as human rights or justice since justice is served only to those who demand it with strength," she added.

Al Faisal said that the West, which has conquered and destroyed two nations that have never attacked it, sees itself as the guardian of world peace. "Those who this very minute are directing or condoning some form of destructive behaviour towards innocent civilians either in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine have the effrontery to question Iran’s intentions," she said.

"One is in constant amazement when Western nations lecture on democracy and human rights and the desire for peace while right in front of our eyes Palestinians are mowed down like weeds on a beach. We hear no condemnation from the defenders of peace or see no action from the United Nations. Worse, they stop us from saving our own people from starvation in the name of peace," she stressed.