I maintain that Western popular culture at its best is worthy of respect and should be cherished as much as the operas of Wagner.

Each time you admire the façade of the New York Public Library, you are paying homage to Western civilization.

Human rights transcend local or ethnocentric values, conferring equal dignity and value on all humanity regardless of sex, ethnicity, sexual preference, or religion. It is in the West that human rights are most respected.

Discussions of Western civilization are too often confined to works of high art that reflect a relatively narrow element of public taste and experience.

Being from a minority culture, I realised the importance of looking at non-Western cultures in a positive way.

In the West we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live as we choose. Liberty is codified in human rights, a magnificent Western creation but also, I believe, a universal good.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: this triptych succinctly defines the attractiveness and superiority of Western civilization.