I really appreciate your detailed response and I absolutely concur with you on all the points you have raised regarding the brutality of other empires on other continents than Europe. I have been and remain a fierce critic of Islam including its modern manifestations, along with its history of slavery.

I spent time in the UAE back in 2016, my first experience of working abroad actually, and resigned as soon as I was practically able to. It was extremely disturbing, to me, brought up in the UK, to see how people of colour were treated, both socially and by the systems of the country within this supposedly islamic 'nation'.

But in a way, what was worse was how all my colleagues from the UK/USA etc, told me to 'go with the flow', and they themselves were very much enjoying doing so... this was the major eyeopener for me, to understand how superficial are notions of equality, rule of law etc... that those beliefs and ideas actually are just a fig leaf beneath which the same or worse barbarities occur. It's like a corporation such as Syngenta, happy to produce adn sell paraquat that has been banned for use within Europe.

I attempt to understand the flow and systems that direct our behaviour as individuals so I must add that my closest and deepest relations and friendships are with 'white ' individuals.

I certainly have never held to the notion that don't any one grouping of people are the incarnation of evil, but the particular juxtaposing of conditions and needs in Europe (lack of natural resources being key) led to the development of systems of thought that categorised others as less than human (in order to justify their extreme exploitation, genocides, occupation of their lands etc)

Yes, other empires eg the Ottoman, while most certainly cruel in many many practices yet did not go so far in denying the humanity of those they conquered so that, individuals from the conquered regions could rise in the ranks of army or courtly life as for example, occurred with the Mughals.